


Hakuo

by Kael_Vercorian



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fuinjutsu, M/M, Sealing, Yôkai, bijuu dimension, more than nine bijuu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-03-15 18:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 42,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3456614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kael_Vercorian/pseuds/Kael_Vercorian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kira and Serena are determined to become the strongest Seal Masters the world has ever seen. If their ancestors could create a portal and travel to a dimension filled with bijuu, then who knows what else can be done? Along the way, they plan to help their adopted brother, Naruto, become Hokage; and find out the secret behind the Uchiha massacre. But fighting a war had never been part of the plan. Who is the man behind the orange mask?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Some things in my story will be different from the anime/manga. I came up with this story idea before we learned where the Ten-Tails came from. If you can't stand reading stories that are different from canon, then this story isn't for you. There will be some romance in this story, but nothing really graphic. I'm not homophobic and some of my characters will be gay. If that's a problem for you, then don't read this story. 
> 
> This story is a work in progress. I do intend to finish it, but it might take a while if I have writer's block. If you have any suggestions about what you'd like to see in this story, then I'll consider them.

**Serena and Kira, age 5**  
  
"Serena, look at this!" said Kira, running into the room. Serena set down her dolls to look at the book her twin sister was waving around. "What is it?" asked Serena.  
  
Her sister grinned at her, showing off her missing front tooth. "Two of the characters in this book are twins, like us. But they have the ability to talk to each with their minds. The book called it telepathy." she said.  
  
"Telepathy?" she asks. Her sister opens the book to a specific page and says, "Here, read these paragraphs."  
  
She takes the book and begins to read. As she does, her eyes get bigger with surprise and wonder. "No one can hear what they're saying. It's like a secret code but ten times better." she says.  
  
"I know, right? Do you think it's possible we could create something like this?" asks Kira.

"What? How?" she asks.  
  
"With seals," says Kira.  
  
She blinks a few times, confused. "None of the adults have ever said you could do something like that with seals, though."  
  
"No, but they have said that almost nothing is impossible with seals. Maybe when we're older we'll know enough about seals to create a telepathy seal." says Kira.  
  
She thinks about it for a moment, then grins. "Okay, let's do it."  
  
Her sister's answering grin mirrors hers. "Yes!"  
  
Their mother, hearing the noise, comes into the room. "What are you two so happy about?" she asks.  
  
We turn and look at each other. We can tell at a glance that neither of us wants to tell our mother what we're planning. However, it's impossible to lie to mother or anyone else in the clan. Everyone with the Hakuo Bloodline Limit can sense when someone is lying, as well as what that person is feeling. Kira comes to our rescue.  
  
"I'm happy that I read this book. It's really awesome, you know? There are dragons and knights, and the book even has twins in it." she says.  
  
Technically it's not a lie. Kira is excited about the book; she just hasn't mentioned that it's the telepathy between the twins and not the twins themselves that has her so giddy. Fortunately for us, mom can't sense the deceit and just smiles at us.  
  
**Serena and Kira, age 6**  
  
Serena and Kira were in their room playing when they heard the door slam. They could feel their mother's angry chakra enter the house. They exchanged startled looks, wondering what was going on.  
  
"That horrible man!" they heard mother shout. The two of them got up and pressed their ears to the door. If they left the room, mother would notice and might not tell them what was going on.  
  
"I take it that he still won't agree?" asked their father.  
  
"No. Danzo is still interfering. He insists that if someone adopted Naruto, the other clans would throw a fit. Everyone else just wants to control the Nine tails. Sarutobi has sided with Danzo. He doesn't want to deal with the other clans if he lets us adopt Naruto." replied mother.  
  
"They're breaking the treaty. Did you mention that to them? Naruto should have been given to the clan to raise as soon as his parents were killed." said father.  
  
"I did remind them of that. Danzo didn't care. He doesn't believe we'll do anything about it. We don't have enough political power to do this peacefully. Our allied clan, the Uchiha, won't side with us on this. They want to control the Nine tails. And, although, we could ask the Void members of the clan to come here and deal with this violently; too many people would be killed. It isn't fair to the civilians to risk their lives over one child, no matter how close we were to his parents." she said.  
  
  
**Kira, age 7**  
  
"We've lost another ninja from our clan, Kenji."  
  
_'That's mother's voice.'_ Kira thinks. She was walking down the hallway when she heard her mother talking. She stays quiet and listens to their conversation. If they haven't sensed her by now, then whatever they're talking about is clearly important.  
  
"What should we do about it, Rina? Should we ask the Void branch to send us a few clansmen?" her father asks.  
  
"...No. All of them have families. Perhaps in a few years, someone from the younger generation will be old enough to journey here, if they're willing." says mother.  
  
"I don't see why they wouldn't be. What teenager wouldn't want to have an adventure, fighting enemies in another dimension?" he asks.  
  
The Village Hidden in the Void was a ninja village located in another dimension. A long time ago, someone from the Hakuo clan found a way to create a portal to another dimension using seals. Some of the people from the clan moved to that dimension while the rest stayed in this one. Eventually, the Leaf Village was founded and my clan moved here. We still keep in touch with the Void Branch of the clan.  
  
"Maybe. Even if they don't, we've still got Kira and Serena. They're both good with seals and seem to be interested in being ninja. And it's also a possibility that one of the civilian's children will want to be ninja as well. We'll just have to wait. Eventually, our numbers will increase again." said mother.  
  
Now that Uncle Takuma was dead, mother and father were the only ninjas living in the compound. Serena and I were still in the academy. The only other person living in the compound was the clan's blacksmith. He was responsible for making the clan's customized chakra conductive kunais.  
  
There were five buildings on the clan grounds. Three of them were houses, one was the blacksmith's shop, and the other was a storage building. I had been in that building a few times. It contained canned food for the winter, extra clothes, scrolls, ink, and a small library consisting of five bookshelves.  
  
There were currently three civilian families living in the Leaf Village. One of them was her aunt, Sayuri who had married a civilian. She has two children. Kira's mother has two cousins, Ken and Emi. They both married outside the clan and have children. So in total, Kira has six civilian cousins who are roughly the same age as her. But those are only the people who kept the Hakuo clan name. She still has distant cousins who chose to change their name when they married. Kira thinks of them and their children as distant family members, but they aren't clan. They don't have to follow Clan Law and aren't given the protection of the clan.  
  
While she was lost in thought, her mother walks out of the kitchen. While slightly annoyed that her daughter was eavesdropping, she can hardly be blamed for listening to a conversation happening in such a public area of the house. Especially, since she should have been able to sense her daughter standing there. Losing her brother had made it more difficult to concentrate, though.  
  
"Did you need something, darling?" asks Rina. She can tell her daughter is worried about her. Even someone with a weak empathetic gift would have noticed the grief Rina is trying to hide, and her daughter's ability wasn't weak.  
  
"I was heading outside, to look at the garden. I heard what you were saying. It's important for us to have ninjas, right? Ninjas keep civilians safe. If we don't have ninjas in our clan, we have to rely on others to keep our civilian clan members safe." said Kira.  
  
"That's right, darling. But our family's not in any danger. The Leaf village is safe at the moment. And if the village was ever attacked, our family can move back into the compound to take shelter under the seal barrier." said Rina.  
  
Rina puts her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Serena is already outside. Why don't you go play?" she suggests.  
  
"Okay," says Kira cheerfully and runs out the door. She knows her mother hadn't been lying when she said the village was safe, but she had still felt worried. Did her mother think someone would attack the village? Perhaps the next time she saw her cousins, she would talk about how important ninja were. Maybe one of them would join her in the academy.  
  
**Kira and Serena, age 8** ; **Naruto, age 5: January**  
  
Naruto watched from the edge of the park as a group of children gathered around a picnic table with their parents. It looked like a birthday party. He had never been to a birthday party and wanted to join them, but didn't want to get chased away. For some reason, the adults didn't like him.  
  
Maybe he could get one of the children to play with him before the adults noticed. Other kids didn't hate him at first, not until their parents told them to stay away from him. He noticed one of the red haired girls staring at him. He smiled and waved, and was surprised when she smiled back at him.  
  
The girl tugged at her mother's dress to get her attention. He couldn't tell what she said from this distance, but the mother handed her something. The girl then walked over to him, and he could see that it was a piece of cake.  
  
"Hello," she said. "Would you like a piece? We have some left over."  
  
"Really?" he asked. He was both surprised by her offer and suspicious. Nobody had ever given him cake before. "Won't your parents be upset that you're giving that to me?"  
  
She just blinked at him, looking like that was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. "Of course not. It's my birthday and I can invite whoever I want. Besides, my family isn't ignorant like some of the other villagers. We know the difference between a storage scroll and the kunai sealed inside it."  
  
"What?" he asked, completely baffled. What did she mean?  
  
She looked at him sadly and shook her head. "I'm not allowed to tell you why the civilians don't like you. It's an S class secret. I believe the Hokage will tell you when you're older, though."  
  
"The old man never answers me when I ask him about that." said Naruto, scowling. Why did it matter what age he was? Didn't he have the right to know a secret that was about himself?  
  
"He has his reasons. For now, though, why don't you come celebrate with me? My sister and I turned eight today. My name's Serena and the girl over there that looks exactly like me is Kira." she said. She handed him the plate she was carrying and took his hand. He let her lead him over to the rest of the group. He hoped she was right and that her family wouldn't reject him. It would be nice to have friends.  
  
When they got over there, he was happy to see that none of the adults looked at him with hatred or fear. They even seemed glad to see him! The children too seemed glad to have another person to play with. While they were introducing themselves to him, he noticed that all the children had red hair like Serena. "Are you all family?" he asked.  
  
"That's right," said Kira. "Serena is my sister and the rest of them are our cousins. Noriko and Sumiko are Aunt Sayuri's children. Kyo and Kenta are cousin Emi's kids. And Sora and Yuki are cousin Ken's children."  
  
Looking at them, he couldn't help but be sad. He would have given anything for even one family member, and this girl had a whole bunch!  
  
Kira titled her head at him, sensing his longing for friends and family. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. He tensed up immediately, radiating shock. Judging by his reaction, she didn't think he got hugs very often or any positive touch. "You don't have to be sad anymore, ok? We'll be your friends." she said. The other children around her all nodded their heads and voiced their agreement. They could all sense emotions to some extent and anyone who felt that happy to have friends couldn't be a bad person, despite what some of the other villagers said.  
  
**Kira, age 8** ; **Itachi, age 11: March**  
  
She had been walking through the forest next to the Hakuo clan compound when she sensed someone in pain. She began to run; and as she got closer, she recognized the person's chakra. It was one of her distant cousins, Itachi. She had only met him a few times when her family visited the Uchiha clan compound. Itachi's great-great-great grandmother had been a Hakuo who married into the Uchiha clan.  
  
What was causing her cousin so much distress? Was he being attacked? She didn't sense anyone else, but mother had said that some people could hide their chakra signature. She didn't have enough training to sense people like that. When she got close enough, she hid behind a tree. She looked into the clearing, trying to figure out what was going on. While she was looking around, a kunai flew into the tree near her hand.  
  
"Who's there? Show yourself," said her cousin. He was sitting on the ground, one hand on his head like he was in pain and the other outstretched from throwing the kunai.  
  
"It's Kira, Itachi, your cousin." she replied, stepping into the clearing. Why had Itachi not known it was her? Could he not sense the difference between people's chakra? Either he had inherited a weakened form of the Hakuo Bloodline Limit or no one had taught him how to use it.  
  
She suspected the latter because as she got closer to him, his distress increased. He had no mental barriers in place. Neither did she, but she did not normally need them. Ninjas like Itachi, however, should have shields in place when they went out on missions. Sensing the death of others without a shield to lessen the impact could cause physical pain.  
  
She knew that Itachi was a chunin. If he had been damaged by something he sensed on his mission, then being around others would make the situation worse unless that person had a barrier in place. She stopped moving forward and closed her eyes. It took her a minute to put up her shield; but when she did, she noticed Itachi's distress lessened immediately. His level of surprise went up, though.  
  
"What did you do? I can barely tell you're there." he said. He was no longer grabbing his head, but his pain had only decreased a little. There was no one around for miles, so his ability must be quite strong for his range to be that far.  
  
"I put up a barrier, also known as a shield, in my mind. It makes it so the emotions I sense are dulled and makes it more difficult for other Hakuo to sense my emotions." she replied. "Your mother has the bloodline, doesn't she? If her ability is weaker than yours, then she wouldn't need a shield. If she hasn't taught you how to do this, then either she doesn't know how or assumed you wouldn't need one either."  
  
Itachi's expression turned thoughtful. "She can't sense as far as I can. I don't think she knows how to create a...shield." he said. He made eye-contact with her and asked, "Will you teach me?"  
  
"Of course. You're family and the Hakuos always help family memebers." she said, surprised he even needed to ask. It should have been a given that Kira would help him, though she supposed it was more polite for him to ask rather than assume. Kira walked over to him and sat down. "Creating a barrier for the first time can take a while. It requires concentration to put one in place, but it stays up after that. You have to remove it yourself; it doesn't fade over time." she said. He nodded to show he understood. "It's like meditation in a way. You'll need to relax your mind. Once you're in a more peaceful state of mind, you'll imagine a wall between you and everyone else. Go ahead and try it."  
  
It takes about two hours, but eventually Itachi is able to put up a weak barrier in his mind. It only blocks about twenty percent of the emotions he can sense, but it's enough to get rid of his headache. He feels immensely grateful that Kira found him when she did. Although he knows she can feel his emotions, he says the words anyway. "Thank you."  
  
She smiles at him, happy that she was able to help him. Something occurs to her then. If he didn't even know about mental barriers then he would not know about the risks either. She reaches out and grabs his hand. She can feel his surprise in response to her sudden seriousness. "Itachi, it's very important that you don't leave the barriers in place all the time. When you're feeling better and not on missions, you need to put them down. The barriers don't just block other people's emotions, they block our own as well. If you leave the barriers in place for too long, especially the stronger ones, then you'll slowly lose the ability to feel any emotion at all. You won't get angry, sad, or happy. Nothing. You'll loose yourself and become a sociopath." she says. She needs him to understand how serious this is.  
  
"I know that some people think ninja shouldn't feel, that we should just be tools. But it's our emotions that give us a reason to go on missions. If we didn't care about our village, then why would we obey the Hokage's orders?" she asks.  
  
"I understand what you mean." he says. "I fight to keep the peace and to keep my brother safe. I would not want to stop loving him." The very thought of losing himself is horrifying. He did not want to become the kind of person who could kill another human being without regret.  
  
**Kira and Serena, age 8: July**  
  
It was finally completed, the seal that would connect their minds together. Of course they were not 100 percent sure that it would work. They may have been seal prodigies, but they were still only eight years old. But as far as they could tell from all of the seal books they had read, the seal they had created shouldn't kill or maim them even if it didn't work.  
  
"Are you ready to do this, Serena?" asked Kira. It had been her dream since she was five to be able to telepathically talk to her sister. That may have only been three years old; but to a child, three years was a long time. Her sister had gone along with her idea, even seemed happy with it; but did it mean as much to Serena as it did to her?  
  
"I am. This may have started out at as your idea, but it became our dream, our goal. We're twins and I want us to be connected. With this seal, no one can keep us apart. We'll always be able to find each other, no matter the distance." replied Serena seriously. She knew her sister better than anyone; and could guess what her sister's emotions meant at least 70 percent of the time. With this seal, there would be no more guessing; she would always understand her sister from now on.  
  
The two of them got out their ink and brushes. This particle seal would require their blood to work; so using a kunai, they made a small cut in their fingers to add blood to the ink. Using the brush, Kira mixed the blood into the ink and then began to draw the seals onto her sister's arm. By the time she was finished, the seal went from her sister's right wrist to her elbow. The ink dried quickly, so Serena was able to immediately begin drawing the exact same seal on her sister's left arm.  
  
When they were done, they examined the seal, looking for any errors. Finding none, they began the hand signs that would bind the seals in place. They then pressed their hands together. The seals glowed and shrunk down to cover only their wrists like a bracelet. The two began to feel a pressure in their minds that gradually increased into pain. Eventually, they couldn't take it any more and let out a scream before falling unconscious.  
  
When Kira woke up, she was confused to find lying herself in an open field next to a pond. Where was she and how did she get her? She got up and looked around. It was a beautiful field, but she did not recognize it. The last thing she remembered was trying to create a telepathy seal with her sister before blacking out. She looked around frantically. Where was Serena?  
  
She saw something appear on the ground. The complete unexpectedness of it shocked her out of her panic. She walked over there and saw that it was a seal. Specifically, it was the telepathy seal she had made with Serena. It stretched out, leading farther out into the field. As she followed it, the grass around her became taller until it reached her waist. Because the grass was so tall, she almost tripped over her sister who was lying there unconscious. She looked behind her; they were less than a mile from the pond but the grass had been too tall for her to see Serena.  
  
She knelt down next to Serena and tried to wake her up. "Serena! Are you alright? Wake up, please." It took a minute of coaxing, but her sister slowly opened her eyes. Her sisters reaction to seeing their location was pretty exactly what hers was. Complete bewilderment, minus the blind panic since Serena knew her sister was alright from the get go.  
  
"Where are we?" asked Serena. She glanced around, trying to find any land marks she could identify. She failed. This place was beautiful but completely unfamiliar. It also didn't feel normal. Every living thing in the world had chakra in it; but plants and animals didn't have the same type of chakra. This clearing didn't feel like plant chakra; it felt human.  
  
"I don't know," she replied. "But, I'm guessing you noticed the chakra as well?" Her sister nodded. She thought about what this could mean, trying to remember anything their parents had said that could apply to their situation. "Let's think about this logically for a moment."  
  
"Okay," said Serena, wondering where her sister was going with this.  
  
"Let's state the facts and work out way from there. The last thing we were doing before we found ourselves here was creating a telepathy seal. Our parents said seals can do pretty much anything, so there is a possibility that our seal teleported us here," said Kira.  
  
Serena hummed thoughtfully. "Except, our seals didn't have any teleportation aspects to them; not even to teleport ourselves to each other. We intended for the seal to let us find each other, but that's about it."  
  
"Right. So it's probably not teleportation. Also, I've never heard about plants that have human chakra." said Kira.  
  
Something occurs to Serena then. "Our seals were all about the mind. You remember our parents talking about the major clans in the Leaf Village? The Yamanaka Clan has a technique to let them enter someone else's mind. Mother mentioned that people have a mindscape."  
  
Kira's eyes widen in understanding. "Mindscapes look like physical places, a building or somewhere outside. Everyone's is different and the location reflects who they are or what they've been through."  
  
They both look around, finding new meaning in their surroundings. This is what their mindscape looks like? A tranquil pond, which Kira saw contains fish and who knows what else, tall grass, flowers, and bordered by the tallest trees they've ever seen.  
  
"I don't know what this place means about us, but the fact that it's so peaceful is probably a good sign," said Kira.  
  
"That is nice, but I'm more worried about how we leave. And did you notice that we have the same mindscape? I believe that means our seal worked, though not quite in the way we imagined," replied Serena.  
  
Kira examined their surroundings, looking for anything that could be an exit. "Why don't we walk around? We might eventually stumble upon a way out of here." she said. Serena agreed with her plan, so they began to explore their mindscape. The pond Kira had woken up next to was particular interesting. When she put her hands into it, she heard and smelt things that were not there, voices and smells. They were like echoes of her memories.  
  
Her sister was at the edge of the clearing, examining the trees. Kira walked over to her, eager to share her findings. "Serena, I think that pond represents our subconscious," she says.  
  
Serena's eyes flickered over to the pond, curious, before looking back to the tree. "We can explore it some other time, then. For now, though, I think I've found our way out of here. I believe these trees are the border of our minds. If we leave the clearing, we should wake up."  
  
Kira 'hmms' in reply as she peers at the trees around them. "Alright," she says, somewhat reluctantly. She had been starting to enjoy being here, but they did have a life; and their parents must be worried about them. Who knows how long they had been unconscious? It could have been minutes, hours, even days. "Let's go then!" she exclaims, running past the trees, and startling her sister.  
  
"Wait for me," says Serena. Her sister could be kind of reckless and impulsive sometimes. She had said that leaving the clearing might wake them up; but it could just as easily make things worse. Hoping for the best, she runs after her sister.  
  
**Kira and Serena, age 8: November**  
  
When mother and father come home that night, Kira knew something was wrong. Father had started coughing a few hours ago, so mother had taken him to the hospital. They wouldn't be this stressed out and angry if it was just the flu. Whatever was wrong, it was serious.  
  
"Kira, Serena!" called their mother. The two of them went into the living room. Father was sitting on the couch, looking pale. Mother was pacing the floor, clearly agitated about something. When mother saw them, she tried to appear calm.  
  
"Darlings, I need the two of you to pack a suitcase. We're going to visit our cousins in the Void for a week or two. Bring clothing and your toothbrush. They'll have shampoo and toothpaste for you to use there as well as plenty of scrolls and ink," says mother.  
  
The two of them are completely shocked. They were going to the Void? They had only been there once before and it was when they were infants, so they didn't remember the journey. Their father occasionally received letters from his siblings via summons animal, though.  
  
Although they both wanted to ask what was going on, they didn't think their mother could handle questions right now. Deciding not to protest, they went back to their rooms and began to pack. Naturally, their suitcase was actually a sealing scroll.  
  
When they were done, they went outside to find mother, who was setting up the portal seals. It was an elaborate, large seal that took up a 3 by 4 foot piece of paper. The whole thing was made of about a hundred individual seals woven together. The seal had to be redrawn every time because after the portal was opened, the paper disintegrated. This prevented an enemy from learning how to travel to the Village Hidden in the Void.  
  
There was a secondary security measure in place as well. The one drawing the seal had to write how many people were going through the portal. If they wrote four, the portal would close after four people went through. It limited the number of enemies that could sneak into the Void.  
  
Kira and Serena had started learning how to create this portal last year. So far, they knew about 15 percent of it. It was a very complicated, dangerous seal. If they placed a single seal in the wrong place, it could blow up. And with the amount of chakra needed to activate the seal, the explosion would be large enough to kill them and anyone within 20 feet of them.  
  
While mother was finishing up the seal, father was packing his and mother's belongings. He didn't look any better physically, but he seemed to have calmed down. His emotions seemed to have settled on sad resignation. It scared them. To distract herself, Kira studied the seal.  
  
"Where are we going to get enough chakra for this?" asked Serena.  
  
Mother looks up from the seal and smiles. "It is possible to store chakra inside of modified storage scrolls. We use a similar concept to power the barrier around the compound. You've seen your father and I touch the seals near the gate, correct? Those seals take chakra from us and store it. When the barriers need more chakra, they take it from there."  
  
From her pocket, mother gets out a storage scroll. A few of the seals on it are different from normal, which is what allows it to contain chakra instead of physical objects. Mother places her hand on the seal and, using herself as a conduit, moves the chakra from the storage scroll to the portal seals.  
  
The portal is six feet tall and four feet wide, large enough for a human to step through without touching the sides. When they step through the portal, the sight that greets them is a field. In front of them are the gates of the Village Hidden in the Void; behind them are miles and miles of trees that get larger the farther away they are. "Let's go," says their mother.  
  
It takes them about ten minutes of walking to get to the gates. The person that greets them is a startling sight. He's got pointed ears and orange eyes with pupils slit like an animal's. But the most shocking thing of all is that he's covered in fur. He looks like a human-animal hybrid. The surprise on the twins' face causes him to grin, showing off pointed teeth.  
  
"Welcome back, Kenji," says the man. "Who are your companions?" Our father was born here; it makes sense for him to know people from here.  
  
"It's nice to see you again, Ezra. This is my wife, Rina; and my daughters, Kira and Serena. My daughters have only been here when they were infants, so this will be an interesting experience for them," says father with a smile.  
  
"Oh? Do they know about my kind and about the dangers outside these walls?" asks Ezra. Serena steps forward to answer him.  
  
"You're a Yokai: a human with the chakra of a bijuu." she says. Despite what the people from her dimension think, there are more than just nine bijuu. When her ancestors created a portal to the Void, the Ten-Tails escaped into the human realm. Eventually, the Sage of the Six Paths split the Ten-Tails into the nine bijuu. However, there are still many bijuu still living in the Void dimension. Eventually, the humans living in the Void started to make deals with the bijuu living here.  
  
Using seals, a human can connect their chakra to a bijuu's, allowing the bijuu to give the human chakra. Generally, the chakra does not turn a human into a Yokai because they would have to use an unimaginable amount of chakra in a short period of time for their cells to begin to mutate. However, the chakra will cause their children to be born as Yokai, which is what the bijuu want. For some reason, it is difficult for the bijuu to have children.  
  
It could take a strong bijuu, one who has seven tails or more, a few hundred years to have one child. For a weaker bijuu, it could take over a thousand years to have children. Like most creatures, the bijuu have the instinct to reproduce. The bijuu consider any Yokai children born from a human using their chakra to also be their child. Youkai can live for centuries; and it is not unusual for the Yokai to live with their bijuu parent for a while after their human parents have died of old age.  
  
"So your parents have told you of us," replies Ezra. "Glad to know your father isn't ashamed of his old friends." Father just rolls his eyes.  
  
"As nice as it is to see you again, we came here for an important reason. If you come by the compound in a couple days, we can chat for a while." says their father. Ezra seems to understand how serious the situation is and just nods, letting them walk by him. The four of them continue on into the village. They end up walking straight across the village as the Hakuo clan compound is on the other side of the village, facing the gate.  
  
The compound here in the Void was a lot larger than the one in the Leaf. "It looks like it can hold fifty people," said Serena, looking around with wide eyes.  
  
"That's because it can," replied their father, amused. "There are more than fifty members of our clan living in the Void. Some of them live here, some don't. The civilians tend to live in a different residential area of the village. Most of the people that live here are ninjas or the children of ninjas."  
  
One of their father's brothers greets them at the gate and leads them to the guest bedrooms they'll be staying in. Their parents only stay with them long enough to make sure that Uncle Haruki will look after them for a while. Kira isn't sure where they're going, but she suspects it's the hospital. Her parents have told her before that Void medic nin are able to heal some things that the Leaf Village can't. Hopefully, they'll be able to fix whatever's wrong with father.  
  
While their parents are gone, Uncle Haruki gives them a tour of the compound and introduces them to several of the children their own age. Serena and Kira are pleasantly surprised to realize that their cousins know as much about seals as they do. Their civilian cousins are nice to hang out with, but they don't share the same interests. Even Kenta and Sora, who plan to be ninja in the future, aren't as interested in seals as they are.  
  
They talk about seals with their cousins for a while, as well as comparing their two villages. One of the children suggests ninja tag; and they spend the next hour chasing each other from rooftop to rooftop. By the time their parents return, several hours have passed and the sky is dark. Their parents, seeing how tired they are, decide to wait to until morning to tell them what's going on. They would protest, but they really are quite exhausted.


	2. Chapter One

**Naruto: age 5  
  
** Naruto was worried about his new friends. He had been moved into the Hakuo clan guest house a few months ago when the orphanage had kicked him out. He had become closer to all of them since then. And a few weeks ago, Kira and Serena along with their parents had left. Ronen, Kira's cousin and the clan's blacksmith, had stayed behind to watch over him while they were gone. Ronen had not told him where they had gone, only that they had left for an important reason and would come back as soon as they could.  
  
The other Hakuo children had visited several times with their parents. None of the other kids knew what was going on, but they were as worried as he was. They had told him that when their parents had went to ask Ronen were Rina and Kenji were, they had come back home looking very concerned.  
  
Unfortunately, his worst fears were confirmed when his friends came back home. Kenji had been poisoned on a mission, a few days before they had left. Rina had taken him to a village she called "the Void" in the hopes that they could cure him. Although they were able to prolong his life for a few more days, giving his daughters time to say goodbye, they hadn't been able to stop the poison from killing him.  
  
As upset as he was about Kenji's death, he knew that Kira and Serena must feel at least ten times worse about their father's death. Sometimes he could hear them crying in another room. He never knew whether he was should go in there and comfort them or pretend he hadn't heard anything. He knew that some people got embarrassed if others saw them crying.  
  
Ronen's mother, Yumiko, temporarily moved back into the compound to help out with the housework. Yumiko said that Rina needed time to deal with her grief. At the moment, Rina seemed to lack the energy to do everything that she used to.  
  
Yumiko seemed to know he wanted to help and invited him to cook dinner with her. "Everyone should learn how to cook eventually," she said. "You're a bit too young to use a knife, but you can help me add the ingredients to the pot. Let me know if it starts to boil over."  
  
At dinner that night, he tried to cheer Kira and Serena up. He talked about his day and anything else that came to mind. Serena smiles for a moment, so he thinks it must be working, even if only a little. And although Kira doesn't smile, she no longer looks like she's about to cry. Rina, though, just sits there with a blank look on her face. Eventually, Yumiko has to coax her into eating. He hopes she starts to feel better soon. He doesn't think the girls can handle losing their mother as well.  
  
A few days later, they have a visitor. He's a few years older than Kira and introduces himself as Itachi. Naruto isn't sure what to think about him, but he does manage to make Kira smile, so he's probably an okay person.  
  
**Kira, age 9: April**  
  
Kira can hardly believe the news when she hears it. Just last year their father had died because of a mission....and now their mother was dead too. Mother had left four days ago, saying she should be back within a week; it was just a simple escort mission. But they had been attacked by missing-nin. Mother's client had been traveling with something worth a lot of money. The client hadn't wanted to give his possessions up, so mother had fought the missing-nin and lost.  
  
She spends the next few hours sitting quietly in the garden. Naruto occasionally walks by, giving her worried looks. Her friend's concern is sweet, but right now she needs to be alone. Later, she and Serena will reminisce about all the good times they've had with their mother and cry.  
  
She isn't surprised when Itachi stops by the next day. They had slowly become friends ever since the day she had helped him create mental barriers. Sometimes Kira wonders why his mother had not asked someone from the clan to teach him about his abilities if she could not. Did his mother not pay attention to her son or had Itachi tried to hide his suffering from her?  
  
"A spar might take your mind off things for a while," suggests Itachi.  
  
"Sure," she replies. The Hakuo clan compound has a small training field that they can use. She's only fought Itachi a few times before. Usually they just work on chakra control and do individual target practice. She's not as strong as Itachi; nobody their age is. According to him, though, she's already at Genin level, which is nice to hear.  
  
They mostly use taijutsu as Kira doesn't know any ninjutsu yet. After the spar, they walk through the woods outside the compound, talking about anything that comes to mind. Itachi seems to want to ask her something, but is hesitant to bring it up. She stares at him with a curious look; he knows he can't hide anything from her.  
  
"About a month ago, your mother came to the Uchiha clan compound and talked with my father. They made a deal. Did she tell you about it?" he finally asks.  
  
"Oh, that. Yes, mother asked me about it. She wouldn't agree to something like that without my permission," she says. Had he worried about that all this time? "What about you? Were you asked permission?"  
  
He grimaces slightly. "Sort of. If I had been completely against it, he would have listened. But are you sure you're alright with this? It would mean that Serena becomes clan heir instead." he says, concerned.  
  
She humms in thought. "Nothing is really set in stone until we're older; but, honestly, I think Serena would make a good clan head. And Fugaku's support is necessary. He's promised to get the council to back off so that the Hokage can give permission for Naruto to live here. The Hokage does care about Naruto's well being and would have agreed to let my parents adopt Naruto if the council hadn't interfered." she says.  
  
Itachi senses the truth of her statement and calms down. "You've become close to Naruto then?" he asks.  
  
"Serena and I both have. He's like our little brother. Older siblings have to look out for younger siblings." says Kira, smiling. It was interesting to compare her emotions towards Serena and Naruto. She loved them both, but she felt more protective towards Naruto because he was younger. Serena was her equal; someone to watch her back and vice-versa.  
  
"Speaking of siblings, Sasuke and Naruto are the same age, aren't they? We should introduce them, see if they become friends." she says.  
  
She can sense amusement from him. "Are you trying to arrange a play-date?" he asks with a smile.  
  
She puts on a mock-serious face. "And if I am? It is the older sibling's duty to look out for their younger sibling, you know." As something occurs to her, she stops kidding around. "Not just their physical health either, Itachi. It's important to look out for their emotional health as well. Depression can kill just as easily as an enemy's kunai."  
  
**Serena and Kira, age 10; Itachi, age 13**  
  
Serena had been helping Aunt Yumiko with dinner when she felt her sister's sudden panic. She turned around and saw her sister run down the hallway and out the door. She didn't know what had upset her sister, but she wasn't going to allow Kira to face it alone. She glanced over to Aunt Yumiko, who was looked just as baffled as her.  
  
"I'm going after her." said Serena. Aunt Yumiko looked worried but reluctantly agreed. By the time Serena gets outside, her sister has already made it past the gates. She realizes that her sister is using chakra to run faster. After a mile of running, she begins to sense what her sister has.  
  
They're running towards the Uchiha clan compound; and the only two Uchiha she can sense are Itachi and Sasuke. The youngest Uchiha is on his way home; with any luck, they'll get there before he does. Itachi's emotions are so agonized that she can hardly stand it. Her brain doesn't want to wrap around the implications of him being the only one in the compound. At this time of night, there should be other Uchihas at home. What is going on?  
  
They reach the gate at the same time Sasuke does. He looks confused to see them, but Kira doesn't give him time for questions. "Serena, take Sasuke back to the Hakuo clan compound. He'll be safe under the seal barrier. I'm going in there." says Kira.  
  
Sasuke looks ready to protest. Either he can't sense what's going on or he's a reckless fool. She goes over to him and grabs his hand. "Something has happened, Sasuke. It's not safe here. Please come with me." she says, dragging him with her.  
  
"What do you mean? Is my family alright?" he asks, nervous.  
  
"We're not sure yet. Kira will find out and tell us." she replies. He reluctantly agrees and goes with her to the compound. Sasuke has the family seal on his right palm, so she doesn't need to get a visitor's seal bracelet to let him through the barrier. Aunt Yumiko and Naruto are just inside the gate, looking worried.  
  
"Kira is investigating the situation. For now, we should stay calm. We were in the middle of making dinner, weren't we, Aunt Yumiko?" she asks. Her aunt seems to realize that she's trying to distract Sasuke and Naruto and goes along with her plan.  
  


* * *

  
Kira had to take a deep breath before she could force herself to go past the gates of the Uchiha compound. Unlike her sister, she wasn't in denial about what was happening. Someone had killed the Uchiha; the only two left were Itachi and Sasuke. She headed in the direction she sensed Itachi, and found him inside his house, standing above the corpses of his parents.  
  
He actually looked surprised to see her. "I wasn't expecting you to come here," he said. She gave him an 'are you kidding me?' look.  
  
"We've known each other for two years, Itachi. In all that time, have you not realized how far my range is? I can sense people five miles in either direction. The Uchiha and Hakuo clans are within five miles of each other. Did you think I wouldn't be home at this time of night or that I wouldn't investigate the disappearance of practically everyone in your clan?" her voice has steadily increased in volume until she was almost shouting at the end. She can sense his guilt when she mentions his clan.  
  
She doesn't want to believe it; but she knows without asking that he's the one who did this. What reason could he have for killing his clan? She knows how terrible he feels for doing it, so why? He doesn't hate them, and she doubts it was temporary insanity. If he hadn't killed them because of an emotional reason, then what logical reason did he have for killing them?  
  
But more than that, she wants to know..."Are you planning on killing Sasuke as well?" She didn't care what reasons he had; she wouldn't allow Sasuke to become another one of his victims.  
  
Itachi looks pained by her question. "No." Such a short answer to her question. It becomes clear after a moment that he isn't going to elaborate.  
  
She narrows her eyes at him. "Are you going to tell me why you did this?" she asks.  
  
He just looks at her for a moment, clearly attempting to clear the emotions from his face. "...No."  
  
She scowls at him, her anger rising. None of this made any sense. Itachi didn't like killing people. He wouldn't kill the clan without a reason. His objective had always been peace and the safety of his brother. Did he somehow think his clan was a threat to Sasuke or to the village?  
  
Her eyes are drawn to the corpses on the ground and something horrible occurs to her. "Mikoto had Hakuo blood." she says. She can see he doesn't understand what she's getting at, which causes her irritation to skyrocket. Had he thought any of this through?  
  
"Hakuos don't kill Hakuos, Itachi. It's against clan law. Do you think the rest of the clan will ignore this? They're going to come after you. Despite your skills, you're only thirteen. You won't be able to escape them." she says.  
  
That, at least, gets a reaction from him. The thought of having the Void branch members coming after him makes him nervous, as it should. You don't mess with a clan of Seal Masters. But it doesn't bring her any satisfaction to imagine him being executed by her clan.  
  
"You'll be put on trial after they capture you," she says, trying to think about all of her clan's laws and their loopholes. She makes eye-contact with him, unafraid of his sharingan eyes. "Mikoto never taught you anything about the clan, did she? I taught you how to use the Hakuo Kekkei Genkai; and my mother taught you about the traditions and rules of the clan as well as sealing."  
  
Itachi is confused and somewhat offended by her words. "She didn't know how to help me with my abilities, and Rina offered to teach me." he says.  
  
"I know," she says, grimly. "But the reasoning won't matter at your trial. You're going to have to give them facts; true facts since they can sense lies. Mikoto went by the name Uchiha and followed their traditions. You need to convince my clan that she should be considered an Uchiha, not an Hakuo. They'll banish you from the clan for killing your kin, but they won't execute you for it."  
  
For a moment, all Itachi can do is stare at her, overwhelmed. All Kira knows for certain is that he killed his clan, not his reason, but she's helping him anyway? What did he do to earn that kind of loyalty?  
  
"Why are you helping me?" he asks. He can feel her exasperation at his question, as well as anger. _'She finally looks like she wants to hit me,'_ he thinks, amused.  
  
Kira scowls at him, wondering what he finds funny. "For a genius, you can be an idiot. You're family, Itachi. I may not understand your choices or approve of them in the slightest, but I don't want you to die. I'm not going to stop caring about you. But I will stop you if you ever attack my family, especially my siblings." she says.  
  
Itachi is left speechless by her declaration. He had expected all his former friends to feel betrayed and hate him. But Kira was basically declaring her love for him. "I have no intention of attacking them," he says. The anger leaves her face as she senses the truth of his words. He wishes he had more time to talk with her, but he can sense the Anbu coming.  
  
"Kira," he says, bringing her attention away from the approaching Anbu and back to him. "They can't know you were talking to me." He can practically see her thoughts spinning, digesting his words until she reaches the same conclusion he has.  
  
"You have to knock me out," she says. "It's alright. I trust you not to damage me."  
  
There's no time for him to dwell on how her words make him feel, so he merely nods. Genjutsu is the safest way to knock her out. He wouldn't want to accidently give her a concussion by hitting her. She meets his gaze without fear as he uses his sharingan to cast his genjutsu. Her eyes close, and he catches her as she falls. He gently lays her down, away from the blood before he runs off.  
  


* * *

  
She wakes up, three hours later, in the hospital. Her sister is asleep on the chair next to her. She can sense Naruto and Sasuke in the waiting room; and her Aunt Yumiko is outside the door talking to someone, probably a nurse or doctor. Her family seems agitated; they've probably heard about the Uchiha clan's fate by now.  
  
She senses the nurse walking to her door and sighs. She really didn't feel like talking to anyone right now. What was she even supposed to say? The bare minimum truth. 'Itachi killed some people then knocked me out,' perhaps.  
  
The nurse was visibly startled to see her awake. Kira just stared at her, unimpressed. Her sister can sense her rising agitation and wakes up.  
  
"Kira, you're alright!" says Serena. Her sister's obvious joy and relief at seeing her safe calms her nerves.  
  
The nurse walks over to them and begins to ask her questions about how she's feeling and if she remembers who she is; genjutsu as powerful as Itachi's probably could be used to give someone amnesia, actually. However, no questions are asked about what happened at the Uchiha clam compound. Most likely, the nurse doesn't want her to have to repeat herself later when she's questioned by the officials.  
  
"The Hokage wanted me to inform him when you woke up," says the nurse, who has since identified herself as Meizumi. "Would you be alright talking to him now or would tomorrow morning be better?"  
  
She wanted to answer 'never' but that wasn't an option. "I'll talk to him tonight," she says. _'Might as well get it over with.'_  
  
"I'll contact him now them. It shouldn't take him more than thirty minutes to get here." says Meizumi before leaving the room.  
  
Kira looks at the clock and then at her sister. "How is Sasuke handling the news?" she asks.  
  
She senses her sister's concern for their cousin. "He's upset, of course. He didn't just loose his parents, like us; he's lost his entire clan. And although no one's said it outright, the rumor is that Itachi is the culprit." says Serena.  
  
"Hmm. Sasuke will need our support. The house Naruto is living in has a guest room. I think Naruto will understand, don't you? Sasuke can't live in a house covered in his parent's blood. And seven year olds shouldn't live alone." she says.  
  
Serena knows her sister is changing the subject from Itachi, but allows it. "We can talk to the Hokage about it when he gets here." she agrees.  
  
They spend the next thirty minutes in silence, waiting. They look at the door a moment before the Hokage enters. His expression and emotions are both solemn. She wonders what he sees when he looks at them. Have her eyes lost the childish innocence that the adults speak of? Seeing dead bodies was supposed to be traumatic, wasn't it? Was something wrong with her or was she just in shock?  
  
The Hokage starts the interrogation off by asking her questions about her health. He could have just asked the nurse how she was doing, but he probably wanted her to know he cared about her health. Whatever. Eventually, he got to the point and asked her about what happened. This is the summary she gave him:  
  
"I sensed the Uchiha disappearing, or dying, I guess. Itachi was there, so I wanted to see if he was okay. Serena chased after me. We got there before Sasuke did, and Serena took him to the Hakuo clan compound for his safety. I went in to investigate." Here, the Hokage interrupts her.  
  
"Weren't you worried about the danger? If adult ninja were being killed, then you would be in danger as well." he says.  
  
She blinks at him, confused. "Yeah, I guess so; but Itachi was in there. I had to know what was happening. If he was the one behind this, then I needed answers. And if he wasn't, then he was in danger. I couldn't let him face that alone."  
  
He doesn't seem to know how to respond to that. Had he not expected Itachi to have a friend willing to risk themselves for him? She didn't know why everyone seemed surprised by it tonight. First Itachi, now this guy. People needed to stop underestimating Itachi's worth. Despite what had happened, she knew he had a good heart. No one could convince her otherwise.  
  
"After I went in, Itachi refused to answer my questions and knocked me out with genjutsu. I don't understand why he did this, do you?" she asks.  
  
"Itachi's actions tonight were unexpected." says the Hokage, which although true, does not answer her question. _'The Hokage was not expecting Itachi to do this, but might know why he did. But he's not telling me, why?'_  
  
Serena notices the same thing she does. They make eye contact briefly. Calling the Hokage out on his evasiveness won't get them answers.  
  
"Hokage-san, Kira and I wanted to know if Sasuke would be living with us now," says Serena. He stares at Serena for a moment, not having expected the subject change.  
  
"Since you are Sasuke's last living family members, I suppose that would be alright." says the Hokage.  
  
The Hokage spends asks them a few more questions before leaving. Aunt Yumiko finally comes into the room. Since the nurse didn't find anything wrong with her, they can all go home now.  
  


* * *

  
The next morning, they gather together in the Main House's living room to discuss what happened last night. As Kira was the one who talked to Itachi, she starts the conversation.  
  
"Alright, here are the facts. Itachi killed his clanmates. When confronted, he refused to give a reason. But he did tell me he wasn't going to kill you, Sasuke," she says. He seems conflicted on how to feel about that. Sasuke loves his brother, but feels betrayed by what he did. He wants, desperately, for there to be a good explanation for this.  
  
"We also know that the Hokage refused to say whether or not he knows why Itachi did what he did. Itachi doesn't like killing people, and he was feeling guilty about what he did. Your thoughts?" she asks.  
  
"The Hokage felt regretful and sort of guilty but not in an 'I'm directly responsible' sort of way." says Serena.  
  
"The Uchiha didn't get along with the Hokage or the council," says Aunt Yumiko. We all look at her in surprise. "Sometimes, I've sensed the Uchiha feeling resentful towards them and the village as a whole. And, no offense meant to Sasuke, but the Uchiha clan is known for being prideful." Sasuke frowns but doesn't say anything.  
  
"The two most important things to Itachi were Sasuke and peace. If the Uchiha weren't getting along with the leaders of the village, could Itachi have thought they were a threat to the peace of the village?" she asks.  
  
"You think my family was planning a coup or something?" asks Sasuke, wondering whether he should feel offended.  
  
Naruto glances between the two of them. "You said that old man Hokage might know Itachi's reason, right? So how would he know even if the Uchiha were planning something?" asks Naruto.  
  
"I remember seeing Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha clan, talking with the Hokage many times over the past year." says Yumiko. "If Itachi was as loyal as Kira thinks he was, then he would have reported any possible uprising to the Hokage. And Sarutobi is not the kind of man who resorts to violence first. He probably tried many times to resolve things peacefully."  
  
The five of them discussed what they knew for a few more minutes before concluding their meeting. "We'll continue to investigate the matter. Eventually, we may run into Itachi and get answers from him. We should be careful not to tell anyone of our suspicious, though. If one of the higher ups did order the deaths of the Uchihas, then they obviously want it kept quiet." says Kira. They all voice their agreement and leave the room.  
  
**Kira and Serena, age 12**  
  
"We're going to be genin in a few months," says Serena to her sister. "I wonder who our teammates will be." The two of them are currently outside, sitting under the shade of a tree. Tomorrow, they will visit their relatives in the Void for any last minute advice. Ever since their parents died, they have visited the Void every few weeks so that their relatives can help with their training. Once they've been made genin, they won't have as much free time to visit.  
  
"Family members don't get paired together, so we'll unfortunately be put on different teams. And considering the ratio of females to male, both our teammates will be male." replies Kira. She's reading a scroll from her Void branch family's library. Serena doesn't know what it's about, but her sister has been reading it off and on for the past week with a really thoughtful look.  
  
"Are you ever going to tell me what's on your mind? What has you so fascinated with that scroll?" Serena asks. Her sister's gaze flickers between her and the scroll, hesitant. Eventually, Kira lets her look at the scroll. Her eyes widen at what she sees. How had her sister gotten her hands on this scroll? She uses her sensing ability to make sure no one is within hearing range.  
  
"This is the seal used to connect a bijuu to a human. Why do you have this?" Serena asks. Her sister frowns at her reaction.  
  
"I was curious. The higher level scrolls aren't as well guarded as you might assume," replies Kira. "I've been thinking for a while now how useful it would be to have access to that level of chakra."  
  
"Yes, but any children you have will be Yokai," she says. Her sister looks unimpressed by her comment.  
  
"Low level ones. They'll barely look any different than an Inuzuka." Kira says. "And the pointed ears could be hidden with a hat or their hair."  
  
There are four levels of Yokai. Level one and level two don't have much different between them. Level one basically just means that you're turning into a Yokai. Level two is when your ears are pointed, pupils slit, teeth sharp, and chakra as strong as a one tailed bijuu. Level three is when someone looks like a cross between a human and animal. Not many people reach level four. Those who are stronger than the rest and live a long time can become a bijuu; that's what level four is.  
  
"Uh-huh. And I suppose no one will notice that their chakra is similar to a bijuu's?" she asks, skeptically.  
  
Kira blinks innocently at her. "We'll claim it's a genetic mutation, a new type of Kekkei Genkai. Or we could say that one of our ancestor's from the Void had chakra like that and it skipped a few generations. The civilians don't know anything about Kekkei Genkai so they should believe it; and the ninjas will be happy to have strong comrades to protect the village." says Kira.  
  
"Even if I did agree to this, would we be given permission to do it?" she asks.  
  
"Well, technically we don't need permission. The Hakuo leaf branch is under the authority of the Hakuo Leaf Clan head, which is me. If I say we're allowed, then the Void Clan head can't object," says Kira.  
  
"But he doesn't have to help us either," she says, giving her sister a skeptical look. Did Kira think they could draw a seal this complicated on their own? It was more intricate than the portal seal and that had taken them five years to learn!  
  
Kira sighs in exasperation. "I think we're more talented than you're willing to believe, but no; I wasn't planning on doing this ourselves. Forcing the issue will be a last resort. I honestly don't see Clan Head Hinrik being against this. There are already a few Hakuos who have made the contract with a bijuu in the last century; he shouldn't object to a couple more."  
  
Serena bites her lip, thinking about it. It was a big decision to make; once the contract was made, there was no backing out. But, it would be a big advantage to have access to that much chakra. And not only that, but she would be able to communicate with the bijuu, able to ask advice. After watching humans for thousands of years, the bijuu would have seen what does and doesn't work in certain situations.  
  
"Alright," she agrees. "Let's do this."  
  
Kira smiles, joy and satisfaction radiating from her. Now all they had to do was find two bijuu willing to lend them chakra. That would have to wait until tomorrow, though. 

* * *

  
"Hmm. I honestly wasn't expecting you two to ask for such a thing," says Hinrik. Kira and Serena had come into his office a few minutes ago and asked to make the journey into bijuu territory. "You know it's dangerous, don't you? Although it's true you might find one willing to make a deal; if they don't like you, they're likely to attack you."  
  
The two of them give him their best serious expression. He can tell that they're determined to go through with this. "Very well then, as long as you understand the danger," he says, resigned. He'll need to send someone who knows how to make the contract seal with them. He can only hope that they come back. It would be a disaster for the Hakuo Leaf branch to lose their most promising ninja. The two of them had more natural talent than his daughter, Galia. Who could have imagined that two eight year olds could create a soul-binding seal? Although, if he understood the story correctly, that hadn't been their exact intention. Telepathy. Children just loved to surprise the adults in their life.  
  
"I'll send Meira and Hina with you. They can both draw the seal. The two of you will need to split up if you want to be back home in less than month. Have you thought about which type of bijuu you want to ally yourselves with?" he asks.  
  
"Type?" asks Serena, confused. Kira doesn't understand what he means either.  
  
Hinrik points to the large map hanging on his office wall. "The bijuu live in packs, and each pack has its own territory. As you can see, the map is color coded by element. The fire types live near the volcanos and deserts. Wind types live near meadows and deserts. Water types live near the ocean as well as lakes or ponds in the middle of forests. Earth and lightning types both like the mountains. The fire bijuu live near other fire bijuu; water bijuu live near other water bijuu; etc., etc."  
  
He gets up and walks over to the map. "Unlike the human's map, our map is not one continent divided into different countries. Over time, we have explored this entire planet. Perhaps if the ninjas of the human realm had less wars, they would have time for exploration. Did you know it was said that Kaguya, the mother to the Sage of the Sixth Paths, came from a far away land? She probably came from a different continent."  
  
"Now, you must decide what element you want your allied bijuu to have; and whether you want it to be a certain type of animal. Although the second one doesn't really matter that much. Are you aware of what your chakra affinity is?" he asks them.  
  
"Yes," says Kira. "Mother told us. I'm water-natured, and Serena is wind-natured."  
  
Hinrik consults the map. "Water and wind, huh? Let's see. The most human friendly water bijuu live here," he says, pointing to a lake. "Despite being water natured, this pack takes the shape of birds. This pack contains 30 percent of all water bijuu, so they have a fairly large territory. Their alpha is named Ravka. And over here is the most friendly wind bijuu. Seventy percent of all wind bijuu take the form of birds because they love to be in the air, flying. The alpha of this pack is named Serata."  
  
"Serata's pack contains twenty percent of all wind bijuu. The average size of a pack is fifteen percent. What's unusual about Serata's pack is that not all of them are birds, just most of them." he says. "What do you think?"  
  
Kira looks at the map, committing to memory where they're going to have to travel to. She raises an eyebrow at her sister who grins. "It's perfect. When do we leave?" asks Kira.  
  
"Tomorrow. I need time to talk to Meira and Hina. You'll need traveling supplies as well. I'll have them meet you at the gates tomorrow morning at 10 am. Your supplies will be delivered to your room sometime tonight." says Hinrik. Kira and Serena thank him before leaving the room.  
  


* * *

  
The next morning, they meet their cousins, Meira and Hina, at the compound gates. "Ready to go?" asks Hina with a smile.  
  
"Yes, ma'm." says Serena. Out of the two, Serena was the politest.  
  
Hina laughs. "There's no need for such formality between family. Just call me Hina. I'll be the one taking you to the wind pack." she says to Serena.  
  
"And I'll be taking Kira to the water pack," says Meira.  
  
Kira smiles in gratitude, "Thank you for helping us, Meira."  
  
"It's no problem. Now let's go. It's a long journey, and we want to get you two home in time for your genin exam." says Meira before leading the way.  
  
After they reach the gates of the village, Hina asks "I assume the two of you know how to increase your speed by channeling chakra to legs?"  
  
"Yes. Mother taught us that when we were seven." says Serena.  
  
"Good. You'll need that skill now. With the distance we're traveling, it would take months if we had to travel like civilians. Let's go!" says Meira.  
  
The four of them gradually pick up the pace as they run through the forest outside the village. Kira and Serena can feel the exact moment that they leave the seal barrier protecting the village. It almost causes them to stumble. The chakra of a bijuu is immense. Even though the bijuu they're sensing is miles outside their normal range, they can sense its chakra.  
  
"Surprising, isn't it? Their chakra is so much different than a human's. You'll get used to it, though." says Hina.  
  
They traveled together for three days, stopping only to eat and sleep, before their paths split. "This is where we separate. Serena and I will be going left. Meira and Kira are going right. If we continue going at the pace we've been going, it should take Serena and I a week to get to our destination; while it will take Kira and Meira roughly ten days to get to their destination. After that, we'll spend a week talking to the bijuu. If we can't convince them in that time, we'll head back. Not everyone succeeds on their first time. Try not to antagonize the bijuu, alright? If they don't like you, don't push it." says Hina.  
  
Serena and Kira assure Hina that they'll be careful. The twins give each other a hug goodbye before following the cousin they'll be traveling with.


	3. Chapter Two

**Serena and Hina:**

By the time they reach their destination, Serena is exhausted. Even Hina, who has more stamina, has started to slow down. "We'll rest here. One of the wind bijuu should sense us soon and come to greet us. Remember to be polite. We need their permission to enter their territory, or they'll get angry. If you do manage to ally yourselves with one of them, then it's likely you'll eventually be considered family, thus giving you permission to enter and exit their territory freely,” says Hina.

She senses one of the bijuu approaching an hour later. Did it take them that long to notice they were here, or did they just not consider their human visitors to be a threat? The bijuu that comes to greet them is different than she expected. For one thing, it’s only slightly bigger than an eagle. She had heard that bijuu were supposed to be huge. The fact that the forest they were in had trees larger than anything found in the human realm was an indication of that. Larger planet, larger creatures living in it. Right?

Hina senses her confusion. “The bijuu can condense their chakra to make themselves smaller. The fact that this one has done so, means that they’re willing to talk to us. They wouldn’t have bothered to shrink down if they were just going to attack us,” says Hina.

When the bijuu lands on the tree next to them, Hina gives a short bow to him. She follows her cousin’s lead and gives a bow of her own. “Humans,” says the bijuu. “I am Saith, third in command of this pack. State your names and intentions.”

“My name is Hina. I am here as my cousin’s guide.” Her cousins looks at her expectantly. Guess it’s her turn for introductions.

“My name is Serena. I have come here to see if anyone from this pack would be willing to ally themselves with me; to connect their chakra to mine,” she says.

Saith studies them for a moment before nodding. “It has been a while since any of us has had children. One of us might be willing to make a deal with you, child. Follow me.”

Saith leads them to a meadow near the forest. Serena assumed it was the pack’s meeting place because she saw a few dozen of them here. A few of them were in the trees or resting on the ground, but most of them were flying in the air. As she watched, some of them did loop de loops and other aerial maneuvers. It actually looked like they were playing. She saw a white wolf napping in the shade of a tree. Did birds and wolves get along?

“You’ll need to introduce yourself to Alpha Serata first. If she gives approval, you can start talking to the others and find one willing to connect their chakra to yours,” says Saith. “Also, you don’t have to refer to her as alpha. Just call her Serata and talk politely. Unlike humans, most bijuu don’t use suffixes.”

She nods to show she understands, so Saith leads them to the middle of the meadow. “Wait here while I inform Serata that you are here,” he says before flying straight up. From what she can see on the ground, it looks like he is flying towards the largest bird in the sky. The two birds seem to converse for a while whilst flying in a circle before they both abruptly dive towards her location.

The bird that lands in front of her is three times her height. The bird has white feathers and pink eyes. “Welcome to my territory, human. I am Serata.”

“Thank you for meeting with me, Serata. My name is Serena Hakuo,” she says with a slight bow.

“Serena, there are many bijuu in my pack. It would take forever for you to speak to all of them. Why don’t you tell me something about yourself so I can give you an idea of who you should start off talking to? What are your likes, dislikes, hobbies? Are you a patient person or hot-headed? That sort of thing,” says Serata.

“I like my family. My twin sister and I want to get strong to protect our family, especially our younger adopted brother and our younger cousin. I enjoy thinking up new ways to use seals. I don’t like bullies. The village doesn’t like my adopted brother because he is the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Even though the Kyuubi was sealed into Naruto to protect the village, they only see the fox when they look at him. It isn’t right. Naruto didn’t ask to be a jinchuriki and he isn’t the Kyuubi.” Her hands were clenched by her sides and a scowl was on her face.

“Naruto is one of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met. He was starved for affection when we met him. I don’t want to know what his life would have been like if we hadn’t taken him in. The orphanage kicked him out when he was five; children shouldn’t have to live alone.”

“You wanted to know about my personality, right? Well, I think I’m compassionate. I don’t like to see people being treated unfairly. I’m not as prone to violence as my sister, though. I’ve sensed genuine hate from her before directed towards the villagers. I think it makes her uncomfortable to feel that way about the people in her village, though. I can’t bring myself to hate them. They’re full of fear. They were helpless to do anything while the Kyuubi destroyed their village. Every time they see Naruto, they’re reminded of their helplessness and the blood of their loved ones. It doesn’t excuse their actions, but it makes them understandable.”

Serena paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “Let’s see. My hobbies are learning more about seals and training. Kira and I help Naruto and our cousin, Sasuke, train as well. And I think when I become a genin, I’m going to ask my Jounin sensei to teach me genjutsu. I can use genjutsu to capture an enemy if it isn’t necessary to kill him. I think I would be better suited for spying types of missions rather than assassination.”

“Um, I try to stay calm most of the time. I don’t like to lash out at people when I’m angry; and I know panicking won’t help me solve my problems. When I’m sad, I don’t get angry like my sister does. I just feel sad. I want to help Naruto achieve his dream of becoming Hokage. Despite all the hardship he’s endured, he still manages to be optimistic. I think he would make a good Hokage someday.”

Serata watches the human girl ramble on, amused. Most of the humans she encountered weren’t this open right from the beginning. Perhaps this child understood on some level that this pack would become her family. So far, she likes what she hears about this child. She knows of a few bijuu in her pack who would be perfect partners for this child; but at the same time, she also wants to keep the child for herself. This human, Serena, is not violent by nature, but will fight to protect her family. That is a trait of an alpha. Who better to pair up with a human alpha than a bijuu alpha?

“Serena,” she says when the child is done talking, “I have decided. I will bond with you.”

Serena blinks slowly, not having expected that. She notices her cousin’s eyes have gone wide. Was it that unusual for Serata to choose her? She can sense amusement from Serata because of their reaction.

“Alpha’s do not chose human partners as often as the other bijuu because it doesn’t take us as long to have children of our own. But I have already had a couple of natural born children. You are an interesting child, and I think we will get along well,” says Serata.

“Thank you. I look forward to working with you,” says Serena.

Serata looks at Hina, “You know how to create the seal, correct? We should begin now.”

Hina nods her head in agreement. She unseals ink and a brush from one of her wristbands. “The seal will need to go on your back, Serena. We should go somewhere private for this. I imagine you don’t really want them to see you shirtless.”

Serena could feel a blush forming. “Ah, no, I don’t.” She follows Hina farther out into the forest. Once they’re far enough away, she removes her shirt and sits down. It takes Hina about an hour to place the seal on her.

“Alright, you can put your shirt on now. Let’s go back and connect your seal to Serata.” Says Hina.

After they get back to the meadow, Serena tugs her shirt down a bit so that the top of the seal is showing. Serata leans down and presses her beak against the seal, and then pours chakra into it. As the bond forms, Serena’s eyes glow pink, the color of Serata’s chakra.

Serena turns and looks at Serata. She can feel the bijuu’s chakra in her. It was odd. She also felt something different in her mind. She had heard that the human and bijuu who were connected with this seal could communicate telepathically. Was she feeling that bond forming?

“What happens now?” Serena asks. Serata tilts her head, thinking.

“How long were the two of you planning on staying here?” asks Serata.

“About a week,” replies Hina.

“Then for the next week, Serena, you and I will work on learning how to communicate using the bond. We can learn more about each other, and I will introduce you to a few of my pack mates,” says Serata.

**Kira and Meira:**

Kira frowned at the seal on her wrist. It was glowing pink. And she could sense bijuu chakra from it. Had Serena already bonded to a bijuu? Meira and she hadn’t even made it to Ravka’s pack yet. Her sister couldn’t have been there for more than a few hours, and she had already befriended one of the bijuu. Her sister made friends so much more easily than she did.

“What’s wrong?” asks Meira, glancing back at her. Kira didn’t think she had seen her seal glow. Meira was traveling ahead of her.

“It’s not important,” she replies, increasing her speed. She wanted to get there as quickly as possible. She didn’t like being separated from her sister for very long. Although she supposed that this was good practice for when they were on separate teams. Once they were old enough to go on missions outside the village, they could be separated for months at a time.

It took them a few more days, but they finally reached the edge of Ravka’s territory. They only had to wait a few minutes before one of the bijuu came to greet them. The bijuu has dark green eyes with feathers of different shades of green.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise. We haven’t had a human visit us in years. Welcome, humans. My name is Daroth, second in command of this pack,” he says.

“It’s nice to meet you, Daroth. My name is Meira, and this is my cousin Kira. We’ve come here in the hopes that one of your pack will be willing to bond with her.” Meira bows slightly to the bijuu to show respect. Kira, not knowing the customs of the bijuu, copies her cousin’s example.

Daroth observes the two humans for a moment. “You two are from the Hakuo clan, aren’t you? This human child, does she live in this dimension or the human realm?” he asks.

Meira gives him a puzzled look. “She lives in the human realm. Does that matter?”

“It has been a while since one of us has heard news about the human realm. Whoever is bonded to the child will be able to see the human realm from her eyes. And then her bonded bijuu can share what he sees with the rest of the pack. It will make life interesting. We get bored after a while of nothing new happening, you know,” says Daroth.

“Anyway, I’ll take you to where the others are now. Follow me.” Daroth leads them through the forest and to a lake. Birds of different colors and sizes can be seen flying through the air. Kira even sees a few of them dive into the lake. It actually looked like they were able to fly underwater. She didn’t understand how that was possible, but assumed it was because they were water bijuu. Chakra creatures didn’t have to obey the same laws of physics that humans and animals did.

“Ravka is currently flying. You wait here while I’ll announce your arrival,” says Daroth before flying high into the sky. The bird he flies over to has dark blue feathers. After a minute, both Daroth and Ravka fly over to a few other bijuu. It is a group of seven that returns to the ground to sit in front of her.

“I am Ravka, the leader of this pack. You’ve met my second, Daroth. The other five are Hera, Mithka, Yara, Rita, and Jarta. They all have different personalities. I wish for you, Kira, to talk to each of them and tell me which one you get along better with.”

She spends the next few days talking with the five of them. She learns that Hera and Jarta both have short tempers like her. Yara is the most creative out of the five of them and likes to day-dream. Rita has a calm personality while Mithka gets excited easily.

Although she likes all five of them, she has to admit that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to bond with Hera or Jarta. Kira knew she needed someone calm, not someone who would agree with her when she wanted to start yelling at idiots.

She thought that Yara’s creativity complimented her own nicely. You had to be able to think outside the box to create new seals, after all. Rita has a calming influence on her. Perhaps Rita could keep help her deal with her anger issues? And she liked Mithka, but he was a bit childish for her. The life of a ninja wasn’t all sunshine and daisies. Although Mithka probably had a serious side, and he might be able to cheer her up if she lost a comrade.

Of course it wasn’t just her opinion that mattered. The bijuu had a say in whether they wanted to be bonded to her. Well, even if none of the five wanted to bond to her, there were other bijuu in Ravka’s pack. Eventually, it was time to talk to Ravka about what she thought about each of the five bijuu. Ravka patiently listened to her as she listed both the positive and negative personality traits of the bijuu.

“So you aren’t sure which one you want to bond to, but you know Hera and Jarta would only encourage your anger issues,” says Ravka.

“Yeah, pretty much,” says Kira.

“Kira, what would you say is your greatest achievement?” asks Ravka.

Kira stares at her for a moment, puzzled. Her greatest achievement? She had to think about it. Out of everything she’s done in her twelve years of life, what was she most proud of? She glanced down at her wrist. She had tried for three years to create a telepathy seal; and although it hadn’t worked the way she wanted, it had still created a link between her and Serena.

“This, I think,” says Kira, holding out her wrist to show Ravka the seal. “I originally wanted to create a telepathic bond between my sister and I. It didn’t end up working out like that, but Serena and I now share a mindscape. We can use this connection to locate each other anywhere. We can also leave each other messages in the mindscape.”

Ravka leaned down to get a closer look at the seal, so Kira made the seal unfold to its full size, which was from her wrist to her elbow. Ravka had been alive a long time and had learned seals from some of the humans that had visited her pack. What she saw on this girl’s arm was amazing. _‘She created a soul-binding seal. This level of seal work is advanced for someone her age. But I don’t see an anchor seal anywhere. What will happen if one of them dies?’_

“This is rather impressive. Did you and your sister create this by yourselves? How old were you?” Ravka asks.

“We started working on it when we were five and finished when we were eight. We didn’t ask for anyone’s help because we didn’t think they would allow it. They might have thought it was childish or dangerous to try, I don’t know. Children don’t tend to care about risks as much as adults do. At the time, we had yet to see the seal that bonds a human and a bijuu. Perhaps if we had, we would have been able to actually create a telepathy seal, instead of what we have now. But, I don’t regret it. This seal has its uses,” says Kira, smiling contently.

Ravka tilts her head slightly, thinking about Kira _. ‘This child can admit to her faults, but doesn’t get depressed about it. She doesn’t seem to have self-esteem issues nor is she arrogant. She has talent. I wonder how much farther she could go with the advice and chakra from a bijuu. If Kira passes her talent onto her children, and her bijuu partner passes their chakra onto the child, it will make for a very powerful Yokai.’_

Ravka decides to spend the rest of the week Kira is here getting to know the human child. If Kira is surprised by this change, she doesn’t remark upon it. On the last day, Ravka visits her children. She needs to know if her natural born children would be against having a Yokai sibling in the future. After finding out that they’re okay with it, she goes back to the humans and asks Meira to place the seal on Kira.

Initially Meira suggested that the seal be put on Kira in a more private location. Kira had responded by asking whether bijuu were ever attracted to humans. After finding out that, no, they weren’t, Kira takes off her shirt there. “If they don’t care, then neither do I,” she had said.

 _‘Kids her age are usually shyer than this,_ ’ thinks Meira, both confused and amused. How did her cousin become this self-confident? She didn’t think Serena was like this.

Ravka approved of Kira’s attitude. Bijuu had no need for clothes; and she had always thought of human shyness as a weakness. Ravka did not want to be bonded to a shy, meek human. Strength of will was just as important as strength of the body.

After the seal was drawn, Ravka leaned down to touch her beak to the seal before channeling chakra into it. She could see Kira’s eyes flash light blue for a moment, the same color as her chakra. After a few minutes, she could start to feel the bond form. With enough practice, Kira and she would be able to talk to each other through the bond.

“Serena and Hina will have already started to head back. We should leave soon,” says Meira.

There is a part of Kira that wants to stay here longer, to continue to talk to the bijuu around her, to learn more about them. But she also misses her sister and the rest of her family in Konoha. Reluctantly, she says goodbye to her new friends before following after her cousin.

**Serena and Hina:**

“It’ll take Kira and Meira longer to get here because the water bijuu territory is farther away. We can either wait here for them or head back to the village,” says Hina. The two of them were currently standing in the area where the four of them had decided to split up. Kira and Meira would have to travel past this area to get back to the village.

“I’d like to wait for them, if that’s alright with you,” says Serena. Her cousin doesn’t protest, so Serena sits down under the shade of a tree. She had never been away from her sister for this long and is anxious to be reunited. She glances down at the seal on her wrist and is surprised to see it glowing blue. She looks at it with a perplexed look. It takes her a moment before she realizes what’s going on. Her sister must have found a bijuu to bond to. Did the seal on her sister’s wrist glow pink when she had bonded to Serata?

Serena glances over at Hina. Doing nothing for three or more days would be a wasted opportunity. Since her cousin is obviously a seal master, she should ask her questions about sealing. She can use this time to improve her sealing skills, and perhaps she’ll do some taijutsu training as well. She needed to improve her physical strength.

**Kira and Meira:**

“It looks like Serena and Hina are waiting for us; I can sense them up ahead,” says Meira.

Kira keeps her eyes locked in the direction she can sense her sister and speeds up her pace. Finally, she gets to see her sister again!

 ** _‘You really care for her, don’t you?’_** Kira nearly trips as she suddenly hears Ravka’s voice in her mind. They hadn’t really had time to practice talking through the bond, so she wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

 _‘I love my sister, as well as the rest of my family,’_ replies Kira.

**_‘I heard you talking about them to the others. Your branch of the family is not as large as the Void branch.’_ **

_‘No, it’s not. And not everyone in the family has to learn self-defense either. Most of my family in the human realm are civilians. I need to be strong enough to protect them.’_

**_‘Hmm. Contact me again when you get to Konoha. I want to see what your village looks like.’_ **

_‘Will do.’_

Kira finally reaches the clearing where Serena and Hina are waiting for them. She can’t keep the smile off her face when she sees her sister. The two of them hug before giving a brief summary of what happened while they were apart. They could discuss the details later at home.

“Come on girls. We need to get going if we want to get you home before the deadline. We promised Hinrik we wouldn’t be gone longer than a month. I’m sure your family is missing you,” says Hina.

**Kira and Serena, age 12; Naruto and Sasuke, age 9:**

By the time Naruto and Sasuke got out of bed, Kira and Serena had breakfast on the table. They had tried teaching the boys how to cook, but it hadn’t gone well. If they didn’t cook, then Naruto would just eat ramen. Sasuke would try to eat something healthy, but Naruto convinced him to eat ramen too often for their liking. A balanced diet was important, and they were glad that Aunt Yumiko had taught them how to cook. Yumiko would still be cooking for them, but they wanted to learn how to do things for themselves now that they were to be ninja. But, Aunt Yumiko had agreed to cook for Naruto and Sasuke when the twins had to take missions outside the village.

“It looks good,” says Naruto. “Thanks for cooking for us.”

“Thank you for the food,” says Sasuke.

The four of them sit at the table and eat quickly. They needed to be at the academy soon. Today Serena and Kira would be placed in their genin teams. They had taken the graduation exam yesterday. Sasuke and Naruto had wanted to take the test early, but Kira had protested. Nine may not have been too young to do D-rank missions, but she knew they would try to get a higher ranked mission before they were ready. The village wasn’t at war, so there was no need to send children on dangerous missions.

The ninja academy was mostly year round with a month long break in between school years. Today was Sasuke and Naruto’s last day of the school year.

“During the break, I plan to teach you two the tree-walking exercise,” says Kira.

“Really?” asks Naruto, hopefully.

“Of course,” she says.

Naruto cheers while Sasuke has a pleased expression on his face. The two of them had been wanting her to teach them this chakra technique since they saw her walk up the side of a building last year. Unfortunately for them, she hadn’t thought they were ready at that time. But their chakra control had improved just enough over this past year that she now believed they were ready to learn it.

“We should get going now,” says Serena, “or else we’ll be late.”

* * *

 Kira had been right when she predicted that Serena and her would be on separate teams. It was disappointing but perhaps it was for the best. Serena and her were planning on specializing in different areas. Serena wanted to learn genjutsu and specialize in infiltration. Kira, however, wanted to be a front-line fighter and learn as many water ninjutsu as she could.

It was not being on separate teams that really bothered Kira; it was the fact that her teammates were from civilian families. Unfortunately, everyone in their class, aside from Serena and her, were from civilian families. Naruto and Sasuke were lucky; they were in a class with several ninja clan heirs.

She didn’t have anything against civilians; they just weren’t as strong. The only training civilians got was at the academy, while ninjas taught their children from a young age. Civilians could become strong ninjas if they were determined enough, but most didn’t have the motivation to make it past Chunin.

Kira was on Team 3 with Kiro Yamada and Hiroki Saito. Their teacher was Kenzou Mizushima. Serena was on Team 5 with Natsuo Nakano and Tadashi Tachibana. Their teacher was Nozomi Yukimura.

Kira and Serena had researched the Jounin of the village earlier this year. Whoever had chosen their teachers knew what they were doing. Serena’s sensei knew genjutsu and had gone on several successful infiltration missions. Kira’s sensei was a Kenjutsu specialist with a water chakra affinity. He would know enough water ninjutsu for a genin like her to learn.

However, she was rather irritated to be on a team with Hiroki. She has heard the comments that boy has made and knew him to be rather sexist. It would be difficult to work with him while he had such an attitude. Most likely, she would have to beat the idea that women weren’t weak into his head.

After the teams were announced, the class was dismissed for their lunch break. She could have chosen to eat with her teammates but really didn’t want to deal with that hassle yet. Instead, she ate lunch with her sister and her teammates. Natsuo and Tadashi were surprised she was eating with them, but neither protested.

“You two had better treat my sister right. As far as I can tell, none of you are sexist like Hiroki, but looks can be deceiving,” says Kira.

Serena is exasperated by her sister’s overprotectiveness while Natsuo and Tadashi assure Kira that they want to get along with their new teammate. None of them have anything against women. Kira is satisfied with their answer and gives them a smile.

“It’s important for teammates to get along. You never know when you’ll need your teammates help in a life or death battle. Loyalty is considered important to the Hakuo clan. As long as you’re kind to my sister, the Hakuo clan will have your back,” says Kira. _‘Unless you share your parents’ hatred towards Naruto, then you can hang like the rest of them,’_ she thinks. She hears what sounds like a sigh within her mind. It seems like Ravka is listening.

She checks the time and realizes that the lunch break is almost over. “I’m heading back to the classroom now. I’ll see you later, Serena.”

* * *

Kira’s sensei is one of the first to enter the room, which means he’s punctual. Good. She hated to be kept waiting. “Team 3? I’m your sensei, Kenzou Mizushima. Follow me,” he says.

As she follows him to their meeting spot, one of the training areas scattered across the village, she observes her new sensei. He has short, spikey brown hair and green eyes. He’s wearing the standard ninja outfit: green vest, black pants, ninja sandals, and ninja headband on his forehead. He has a sword strapped to his back and a kunai holster on his thigh. His skin is tanned from the sun.

Her two teammates have short black hair. Kiro has brown eyes and tan skin, while Hiroki has blue eyes and pale skin. Like their sensei, the three of them are wearing ninja sandals and have a kunai holster. However, Kira doesn’t think they have weapons sealed in their clothes like she does.

“Alright, team, let’s start off by introducing ourselves. My name is Kenzou Mizushima. My likes are Kenjutsu, dango, and hardworking people. My dislikes are laziness, traitors, and lemons. My hobbies are training and cooking. My goal for the future is to become the best Kenjutsu user in Fire Country.”

Kenzou points at Kiro. “Your turn.”

“My name is Kiro Yamada. My likes are strawberries, my family, and adventure novels. My dislikes are math, plums, and chores. My hobbies are painting and swimming. My dream is to become a strong ninja and to paint scenes from my adventures.”

“I’ll go next. My name is Hiroki Saito. My likes are sports and beef ramen. I don’t like the color pink and homework. My dream is to be an awesome ninja. I’ll rescue princesses and defeat enemy ninja.”

“My name is Kira Hakuo. I like my family, sealing, and water. I dislike weakness and ignorance. My goal is for my sister and me to become sealing masters and to create new seals.” _‘I’ll also help Naruto become Hokage and find out the truth behind the Uchiha massacre,’_ she thinks. But there was no point in saying any of that out loud. She knew what the parents of her teammates thought about Naruto, and she didn’t want to hear them echo their parent’s hatred. She also didn’t want Kenzou-sensei to know she was investigating what happened that night. As far as the village was concerned, Itachi Uchiha was a traitor and a murderer.

“Good. Now that the introductions are over, we can get started. The genin test you took in the Academy was just to see who had the potential to become genin. Every Jounin sensei gives their team a test to see if they become actual genin. If you fail, you get sent back to the Academy. If you pass, then I’ll train you to become Chunin, and we’ll go on missions together,” says Kenzou-sensei.

Kiro frowns at their sensei while Hiroki scowls. Neither of them had expected a second test. Kira, however, had heard about this from Aunt Yumiko, who was a retired shinobi.

“Whatever this test it, we’ll ace it!” says Hiroki. Kiro nods his agreement, looking determined.

“What’s the test, sensei?” asks Kira.

“You’re going to spar with me. The goal is to knock me down. If you can manage that by the end of the day, then I’ll accept you three as my students,” says Kenzou.

Kira immediately starts trying to come up with strategies. It would require all three of them working together to knock down a Jounin; and even then, they’d only succeed if he was holding back.

“Let’s do this!” shouts Hiroki, sprinting at Kenzou.

Kira and Kiro exchange startled glances. What happened to strategy? There was no helping it now, though. “Let’s go help him then,” she says.

The two of them run after their teammate. While Hiroki attacks their sensei from the front, Kiro and Kira attack from the side. She would need to stick to taijutsu and kunai. Her teammates wouldn’t be expecting her to use exploding tags and could get caught in the explosion. The three of them needed an opportunity to come up with a plan.

After a few minutes of fighting them, their sensei knocks them back and throws down a smoke bomb. “What?” asks Kiro, holding an arm up to his mouth to block the smoke.

“I never said I’d make this easy on you, did I? Good luck trying to find me,” says Kenzou before rushing off. The three of them don’t have the ability to keep up with his speed. That wouldn’t be a problem for her, though. She could use his chakra to find him.

“Dammit, where did he go?” asks Hiroki, scowling.

“We should come up with a plan for when we find him,” says Kira. She begins to tell them the strategy that she’s come up with.

Hiroki frowns at her. “Since when did you become the boss? I’m not taking orders from a girl.”

Kiro looks at Hiroki with exasperation in his eyes. Why did this have to be about gender?

Kira takes a deep, slow breath. “If you have a better plan, let’s hear it,” she says.

Hiroki stays silent, clearing trying to think of something. After a minute of this, Kiro interrupts. “I think her plan could work.”

“Alright, fine. We’ll try it your way. But, how are we going to find him?” asks Hiroki.

Kira smiles. “By sensing his chakra. He’s two miles that way,” she says, pointing.

Both boys seem surprised by her ability, which didn’t surprise her at all. The Academy didn’t really talk about Kekkei Genkai, which was odd for a village who loved Kekkei Genkai as much as Konoha did. Perhaps the clans didn’t want the details of their abilities to get out.

The three of them set off towards their sensei with her in the lead. Her plan ended up working out, surprisingly well. The teacher clearly wasn’t expecting her to have explosive tags, although he should have. What Hakuo didn’t know how to make explosive tags? Even the civilians were taught how to make them, as well as storage scrolls.

Kiro and Hiroki attacked their sensei from behind, using kunai and shuriken attached to ninja wire. She attacked from the front using her explosive tags. Although, her explosive tags were less explosive and more noise. She hadn’t wanted to risk causing any serious damage to any of her teammates, so her tags were half the explosive power of the standard tags and three times as loud. Her ears were actually ringing a bit now. She would need to have Aunt Yumiko take a look at her when she got home. Her aunt had studied some medical ninjutsu when she was an active shinobi and would at least be able to tell her whether she needed to go to the hospital.

So, basically, her explosive tags surprised their sensei, causing him to step back and stumble over the ninja wire. To prevent him from regaining his balance before he hit the ground, Kiro and Hiroki leapt at him and pulled him the rest of the way down.

The three genin looked at each other and smiled.

“We did it!” exclaimed Hiroki. He held his hand up to Hiro and the two of them high-fived.

Hiroki and Kiro walked over to stand next to Kira while their sensei got up from the ground. Kenzou smiled proudly at the three of them. “That was an impressive show of teamwork. Congratulations, Team 3. You passed my test,” says Kenzou.

Kira tilts her head at him. “No take backs?” she asks.

Kenzou blinks at her, confused. “Um, no. No take backs. What…?”

Kira interrupts him by turning to Hiroki and punching the boy in the stomach. He hunches over in pain as the breath is knocked out of him. “What do you mean you don’t take orders from a girl?! If you think having a dick makes you smarter than me, then I’ll fucking cut it off!” she yells furiously. All the anger that she had been suppressing has come rushing back now that their goal has been completed. She had known that yelling at Hiroki wouldn’t get him to cooperate, but now she could show him how she really felt.

“Kira!” shouts Kenzou, surprised and slightly horrified.

Hiroki looks at her, eyes wide, while Kiro begins to slowly back away from her with his arms in front of his groin. Neither of them had ever seen her this angry.

Kira turns to Kenzou and frowns at him. “I apologize for my outburst, sensei. But Hiroki needs to understand that his sexist way of thinking isn’t acceptable. Thinking that women are inherently weaker than men will cause him to underestimate his female opponents, which could get him killed. Or he’ll insult an enemy kunoichi who will then decide to kill him, when she might otherwise have been willing to spare his life.”

Kenzou looks at her thoughtfully. “Although that is true, I think it would be better if you expressed your opinion without hitting your teammate,” he says.

“Yes, sensei.”

Kenzou checks the time. “Why don’t we go get supper to celebrate? My treat.”

The three genin cheerfully agree and begin to debate where they should go.

* * *

“Team 5. I’m Nozomi Yukimura. Follow me.” The three genin follow their new sensei to a park in the middle of the village. The four of them then sit together at one of the picnic benches.

Serena observes their new teammates while she waits for Nozomi-sensei to start speaking. Natsuo has light brown hair with blonde streaks that goes down to his neck, green eyes, and pale skin. Tadashi has short black hair, blue eyes, and dark skin. Nozomi has long brown hair, currently in a braid, dark brown eyes, and tan skin.

“Alright, first of all, I want you to tell me what you know about me,” says Nozomi.

Natsuo and Tadashi stare at her, confused. “We’ve just met, sensei. All we know is your name,” says Natsuo.

“Not true,” says Serena. “I know that Nozomi-sensei specializes in genjutsu.”

Nozomi smiles. “That’s true. And how did you find know that, Serena?”

“My sister and I asked around. We learned the names of the current Jounin as well as their specializations.”

Nozomi actually looks impressed. “Ninja tend to be tight lipped about their comrades in case someone is a spy. How did you get them to tell you this?”

“Kira and I told them that we were training to be ninja, and that we think being a ninja is awesome. We wanted to hear cool ninja stories. Things like that. We got different stories from different people. From the stories, we were able to figure out what each ninja’s specialty was. You are known for using genjutsu in your fights.”

“So you lied to get information?”

Serena looks thoughtful. “I suppose so. We actually just wanted to know more about our possible Jounin sensei, but didn’t think they would respond as well to that. People talk more when they don’t know you’re gathering information. Adults are more open with what they believe are naïve children.”

“You have a good understanding of how people think, then?” asks Nozomi.

“I think so. I don’t always guess right, but I can usually shift the direction of the conversation based on what they’re feeling,” says Serena.

Her two teammates look at her curiously, so Nozomi explains, “Serena is an Hakuo. Their family Kekkei Genkai allows them to sense the chakra and emotions of other people.”

“Cool,” says Tadashi. She can tell that Natsuo is not as impressed. Serena supposes that her ability doesn’t look as impressive as the Sharingan or Byakugan.

“It is a very useful ability,” says Nozomi. “With it, she can tell when someone is lying to her. Can you understand why that would be important for a shinobi? It would especially be important for a spy to have such an ability. To be able to tell when someone is suspicious of you or whether they are giving you false Intel. A very valuable ability indeed.” The contemplative look Nozomi gives her makes Serena a bit uncomfortable. Was Nozomi suggesting that she should be a spy? That kind of job would require her to be away from the village for possibly years at a time. She didn’t want to be away from her family that long.

“Moving on, it is now time for our introductions. As you know, I am Nozomi Yukimura. My likes are rabbits, knives, botany, and genjutsu. My dislikes are cabbages and rats. My hobbies include making poisons and manipulating people. My goal is to train at least one new spy for the village. Perhaps, one day, one of you will venture out and gather Intel for Konoha.”

She points at Serena, “Your turn, kid.”

“My name is Serena Hakuo. I like my family, poetry, and sealing. I dislike cold weather, sour food, and bullies. My hobbies are training, creating seals, and tutoring my brother. My goal is for my sister and me to become seal masters, to create new seals, and to help my brother achieve his dream of becoming Hokage.”

Nozomi gives her a curious look, wondering who her ‘brother’ is. As far as she knows, Serena and Kira don’t have any other siblings. An adopted sibling, perhaps, or a close friend? She gestures for Natsuo to go next.

“My name is Natsuo Nakano. My likes are comic books, sports, and my family. I don’t like cockroaches or broccoli. My hobbies include babysitting my siblings, cooking, and studying poisons. My goal is to become a strong ninja and to help support my family.”

Nozomi smiles when he mentions poisons. She’s glad that at least one of her students shares her interests. She nods at Tadashi for him to go next.

“My name is Tadashi Tachibana. I like animals, music, and math. I dislike history and asparagus. My hobbies are reading and knitting. Right now, my goal is just to see the ocean. I don’t really have a lifelong goal yet.”

“Okay, now that the introductions are over, it’s time to get down to business. Now, how many of you knew that there’s a second test before you officially become genin?” Only Serena raises her hand. Nozomi continues talking before Natsuo and Tadashi can ask questions.

“Each Jounin gives their genin a final test before they decide whether or not he or she will teach them. If you pass my test, then I’ll train you and we’ll go on missions together. If you fail, you get sent back to the Academy. Any questions?” Nozomi asks.

“What’s our test, sensei?” asks Tadashi.

“Information gathering, of course.” Nozomi pulls out three pieces of paper and hands one to each of them. “As you can see, you each have a different name. I want you to find out as much information as you can about this person. You have until the end of the day. And this is not a team exercise. I want you to focus on the person written on your own paper. I know some Jounin test teamwork, but I can teach you that myself. What I want to know is whether you have any potential at information gathering. Do you understand?”

The three of them nod. “All right then, get going. Good luck, kids,” says Nozomi.

Serena looks at the name on her paper and doesn’t recognize it. She knows this man isn’t one of the current Jounin, but he could be anyone else. Hmm. The library does have some information about the civilians in the village, mostly about the people who own shops. She’ll go to the library and see if it has any information on him.

From the library records, she is able to find out that the man is a civilian carpenter. Now she needs to find him. The best way to find out information about someone is to talk to them. She finds him thirty minutes later and sees that he’s currently working. She waits until he isn’t in the middle of hammering something before she approaches him.

From there, she pretends to be a curious child who finds the process of building houses fascinating. She’s learned that the best way to get people to open up is to talk about something that they both like and have extensive knowledge of. She steers the conversation slowly, mostly letting the man ramble on about whatever he wishes. Eventually, she is able to find out why he became a carpenter in the first place, what occupation his parents had, and the fact that he has a spouse and children, as well as a few other personal details.

Before the sun sets, she returns to the park where her sensei is waiting. Natsuo and Tadashi return shortly after she does. The three of them share what they’ve learned with Nozomi-sensei; and Serena is pleasantly surprised to see that the boys have done as well as she has. Perhaps there’s hope for this team, after all.

“You all did better than I expected. You didn’t get as much information as I would have, but it’s impressive for untrained genin. Congratulations. You three pass,” says Nozomi-sensei.

The three genin exchange happy, relieved smiles. Natsuo’s stomach growls, causing everyone to realize that it is, in fact, dinner time. Nozomi smiles at her new team.

“Why don’t we go out to eat together? I’ll pay this time as a reward for passing,” says Nozomi.

The three of them agree and thank their new sensei. Now they just have to agree on a place to eat.

The restaurant her team ends up choosing is _‘Worldwide Cuisine.’_ It’s a restaurant that’s become more popular lately. It’s also owned by her aunt and uncle, Sayuri and Aoi. When they get to the restaurant, Serena is surprised to see her sister is already there with her team.

Kira smiles at her. “Victory dinner?” she asks.

“Yes. Our teams ended up choosing the same place?” asks Serena, amused.

“Mm-hmm. I’m not surprised. Ever since Aunt Sayuri moved to a larger building and expanded the menu, more and more people have come here. The food is good, but more importantly, it’s different,” says Kira.

 _‘Worldwide Cuisine’_ isn’t just a name. The menu contains dishes from every country on the continent. Their aunt gets a lot of the ingredients from the Village Hidden in the Void, instead of having to buy it from merchants visiting the village. It saves her money that way. Merchants buy ingredients from one village and then sell it to another for a large price than what they bought it for. Because the ingredients are exotic, people are willing to pay more. The Village Hidden in the Void has its own merchants who teleport outside of the village they want to buy something from. Aunt Sayuri buys her ingredients from Hakuo family members who don’t charge her more than what it cost them to buy the item.

The eight of them decide to sit together. Because Kira and Serena are sisters, it’s likely that the two teams will work together in the future, if only just to train together.

“Noriko and Sumiko are working here today,” says Serena.

“Who are they?” asks Natsuo.

“Our cousins,” says Kira. “They’ll probably inherit the restaurant after their parents retire or die of old age, whichever comes first.”

“This is an interesting menu,” says Nozomi.

The menu is five pages long. Each page is from one of the Five Elemental Countries. Each dish has one or two sentences describing it; the menu also states whether the dish is sweet, spicy, or sour. Every week, there are different specials to convince people to try something new. Serena looks at the chalk board on the wall.

“Deserts from Suna are half-off today,” she says.

“Not just the deserts,” says Aunt Sayuri walking up to them. “For you and your team, everything is half off today. Congratulations on making genin, Kira, Serena.”

“Thank you, Aunt Sayuri,” says the twins in unison, causing their aunt to laugh.

The two teams spend the next hour getting to know each other and trying new foods. By the end of the meal, Kira’s dislike of her new teammate, Hiroki, has lessened, though it will take a while longer before she can honestly call him a friend.


	4. Chapter Three

**Serena and Kira, age 15:**

Serena is waiting by the gate with both her team and her sister’s team. The only one missing is Kira.

“She’s going to be late,” mutters Hiroki.

“She’s usually very punctual. Serena, do you know where your sister is?” asks Kenzou.

“No, Kenzou-san. She didn’t mention any other plans to me,” she replies.

Although she does have her suspicions about what Kira is up to. Kira and Naruto had been plotting something last night. Even though Naruto was supposed to be in class, she could sense him running throughout the village. What prank had he pulled this time? And why did her sister not only encourage this behavior, but help him with his pranks as well?

Her sister finally appears a minute before they are supposed to leave. Since she wasn’t technically late, neither of their sensei’s scolded her.

“Let’s go everyone. The Chunin exams await,” says Nozomi-sensei.

The Chunin exams were held every six months. The current exam was being held in Kumo. Relations between Kumo and Konoha were still tense; so everyone needed to be on their best behavior. No one wanted to be the fool that started a war.

Once they were on their way, Serena asked her sister why she was late, causing Kira to laugh. Kira pulled a picture out of her pocket and handed it to her. Her wide eyed expression causes her sister to giggle.

“You painted the Hokage monument?” she asks in exasperation.

“Yes, we did.”

“Why?”

“Naruto’s reasoning was because he’s going to become a greater Hokage than any of them.”

“And your reasoning?”

“The Hokages sacrificed their lives for a village that doesn’t deserve to be saved. Anyone that mistreats a child does not deserve my respect.”

 

**Naruto, age 12; Iruka:**

Naruto stood facing Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei. He had passed the taijutsu and shuriken throwing part of his test. Full scores on taijutsu and 9 out of 10 shuriken had hit the bull’s-eye. He knew he hadn’t done as well on the written part, but he was pretty sure he had gotten enough right to pass. Now all he had to do was create a few clones.

“Alright, Naruto. Begin whenever you’re ready,” says Iruka.

Naruto goes through the hands signs as quickly as he can, and with a puff of smoke, three shadow clones appear. The most difficult part about learning this jutsu from Aunt Yumiko had been figuring out how to only create a few clones at a time. He had so much chakra that his earlier attempts had resulted in several dozen clones at once.

“Those weren’t the hand-signs for the regular clone,” says Mizuki. “Are those shadow clones?”

Iruka walks up to a clone and taps it. “They’re solid. Naruto, where did you learn how to create shadow clones?” he asks.

“From Aunt Yumiko. She’s a retired shinobi, and said I have too much chakra to create normal clones,” says Naruto.

“The test requirement was for regular clones though, wasn’t it? Can he pass with shadow clones?” asks Mizuki.

Naruto frowns at him. He didn’t trust Mizuki at all. Serena had said that Mizuki was one of the villagers who didn’t like him, yet Mizuki acted friendly towards him. It was suspicious.

Iruka looks uncertain. “I don’t know.”

Naruto wasn’t surprised by their reactions. Kira and Serena had predicted that something like this might happen and had prepared an argument for him to use.

“There was a student last year who couldn’t use any chakra at all, but he became a Genin. I think his name was Lee. If he can pass with no chakra, shouldn’t I be allowed to pass using a higher level jutsu than what is required from the Academy?” he asks.

“How did you know about that?” asks Iruka, startled.

“I know people who know things,” says Naruto vaguely.

Iruka considers the way Naruto treats the Hokage like a grandfather and realizes it’s not that surprising that Naruto would have ways of finding things out. “Very well then. You pass, Naruto. Congratulation,” says Iruka.

Naruto cheers and accepts the shinobi headband from Iruka before rushing out of the room. Iruka watches him go with amused fondness. He turns to look at Mizuki and wonders why the man seemed angry. But a moment later the anger is gone, so Iruka decides to worry about it later.

After the rest of the students have finished their tests, Iruka goes outside to see if Naruto is still here. He sees the new Genin by the gates of the Academy standing next to Sasuke. The two of them are talking to a woman he’s never seen before. She appears to be in her seventies with long red hair and blue eyes. Judging by her fitness level, he would guess that she’s a retired shinobi rather than a civilian. Is this the Aunt Yumiko that Naruto had mentioned?

Naruto sees Iruka and waves him over. “Iruka-sensei, I want you to meet Aunt Yumiko. She’s helped me train, along with her nieces Serena and Kira.”

Yumiko smiles at Iruka. “It’s nice to meet you. Naruto’s told me about the nice teacher who will sometimes take him out for ramen. I’m glad to see that there are other adults in Naruto’s life who aren’t prejudiced against him.”

Iruka rubs the back of his head. “Naruto is a good kid. I just wish I had seen that sooner.”

Yumiko eyes him thoughtfully. “We’re having a celebratory dinner tonight at the Hakuo clan compound. You could join us,” she says.

Naruto grins excitedly. “That sounds great. What do you say, Iruka-sensei?”

“I’d love to. Thank you for having me, Yumiko-san,” says Iruka.

The Hakuo clan compound was on the other side of the village from the Academy. When they reached the gates, Naruto rushed in. From where he was standing, it seemed that there was a basket hanging from the inside of the gate. Naruto came back a moment later carrying a black cloth bracelet. Naruto handed the bracelet to him, and he saw it had a seal stitched onto it.

“This is a visitor’s bracelet. The seal barriers will only allow entrance to someone who has that bracelet or who has the family seal on their hand,” says Yumiko. She holds out her right hand, palm up. She channels chakra into her hand and a seal similar to the one on the bracelet appears on her palm.

“Seals on the right hand are for blood related family members. A seal on the left hand is for those who marry into the clan or for honorary clan members,” she says.

Iruka looks at Naruto and Sasuke. Neither of them are wearing a bracelet. Yumiko sees his curious look and explains, “Sasuke’s great-great-great grandmother was an Hakuo. He was given the family seal when he was a child. And Naruto has practically been adopted into the clan. He has the seal on his left hand.”

“Iruka-sensei, I want to show you where I live,” says Naruto. He grabs Iruka’s hand and leads him over to one of the three houses in the compound. Sasuke follows behind them silently.

When they enter the house, Iruka is surprised to see that someone is already there, in the kitchen. “That’s Noriko and Sumiko, our cousins” says Sasuke.

“Welcome home, Naruto, Sasuke. Mom is in the main house cooking supper with the other adults. There wasn’t enough room in the main house, so Noriko and I are making desert here,” says Sumiko. “Dinner should be ready soon.”

Naruto sees Sumiko and Noriko looking curiously at Iruka. “This is my academy sensei, Iruka. He’s been invited for dinner.”

“The more the merrier,” says Sumiko.

“There’s more than enough food for everyone. You’ll like the food, Iruka-san. Mom and Dad cook for a living,” says Noriko.

“I’m sure it will be wonderful,” says Iruka.

Naruto walks past the kitchen. “My room’s down the hall, sensei.”

Iruka follows Naruto down a hallway that contains four doors. Naruto points at them and says, “That one’s the bathroom. Over there is Sasuke’s room. My room is here. The last one is technically the master bedroom, but Sasuke and I don’t need that much room. If we ever have guests, it can be used as a guest bedroom, I suppose.”

Naruto opens the door to his bedroom and steps inside. Iruka looks around curiously. The room has less orange in it that he had expected. There are movie posters on the wall and a bookshelf in the corner of the room. There are sheets of paper and ink sitting on the desk next to Naruto’s bed. From what he can see on the paper, it looks like Naruto is learning sealing. There are boxes under the bed, but he isn’t sure what’s in them.

Naruto notices his curious look and says, “I keep weapons under there-kunai, shuriken, ninja wire. Serena says the only time weapons should be out when at home is for training or maintenance.”

“That does sound wise. Having weapons lying around the home could lead to accidents,” replies Iruka.

“Hey,” says Sumiko from the doorway. “Dinner’s ready.”

Sumiko leads them outside and over to a few picnic tables. “These weren’t here earlier, were they?” asks Iruka.

Sumiko smiles, “They weren’t. You can store pretty much everything in seals, you know?”

Iruka glances around to see how many people there are. Nine adults including him and eight children. He’s starting to understand why there wasn’t enough room for everyone to cook in one kitchen.

During the meal, Iruka asks them how they met Naruto. He’s shocked to learn that Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage. He hadn’t realized the prejudice against Naruto was bad enough for someone to kick a five year old out onto the streets.

“Luckily we had already met Naruto. He knew we were friendly, so he came to us and told us what happened. We took him in right away. I think, if my sister and brother-in-law had lived, they would have tried to adopt Naruto. He gets along very well with their children, Serena and Kira. I’ve often heard them refer to him as their brother,” says Sayuri.

“You keep mentioning those two, but they’re not here, are they?” asks Iruka.

“They’re taking the Chunin Exams,” says Sasuke. “They’ll be back in a couple of months.”

“They’re lucky. I wanted to take the exams as well, but sensei doesn’t think we’re ready yet. He did say we might attend the next one though,” says Kenta.

Towards the end of dinner, Iruka notices that Sayuri and a few others are looking around, with confused frowns. He looks around but doesn’t see anything.

“What’s the matter?” he asks.

“It’s the Anbu. They seem agitated,” says Sayuri.

“Some of the Jounin as well,” says Sora. “I wonder what’s happening.”

“We should find out. If there’s a threat to the village, we need to know about it,” says Kenta. He gets up from the table and heads to the gate, Sora following after him. Naruto and Sasuke exchange glances before rushing after them.

“One of us should go with them,” says Sayuri.

“I’ll make sure they return home safe,” says Iruka before going to find them.

He finds them outside the clan gates just as Sora has finished talking to one of the Anbu. All of the children look worried.

“Someone has stolen the Forbidden Scroll,” says Kenta angrily. “It would be a disaster if that scroll ended up in the hands of an enemy.”

“We should help find the thief and bring the scroll back,” says Naruto.

Sasuke gives him a skeptical look. “We’ve just been made genin and you want to go rushing off to fight enemy nin?”

Naruto frowns at him. “You don’t think we can do it?”

Sasuke shrugs. “Depends on the skill of the enemy, I suppose. Your clones and our explosive tags could work on a weaker opponent, but I don’t think we could win against a Jounin.”

“What if we don’t fight him then? The Anbu don’t know who the thief is, but we could find out using our Kekkei Genkai. Once we get close enough to the enemy, we can alert the Anbu,” says Sora.

“Your family’s ability is to sense emotions, isn’t it? Will that really help you find the thief?” asks Iruka.

Kenta frowns, exasperated. “It will. If you could sense emotions, you would understand. People feel a variety of emotions all at once. Some of our clan can only sense the stronger emotions, but Sora and I are able to sense everything they’re feeling at once. We’ll know the thief when we sense him.”

“And you’re sure you won’t fight him? I promised your parents I’d bring you home safely,” says Iruka.

“We’re sure. Besides, you can’t drag all of us back home at once. Better to come along with all of us rather than risk a few of us rushing into danger,” says Sora.

Iruka sighs. “True. Alright, let’s go.”

The five of them decide to start their search at the edge of the village as the thief will be trying to escape. Kenta and Sora can sense where the Anbu are already searching and pick different locations to start their search. It takes them about an hour before they sense someone they think could be the thief.

“Doesn’t this chakra feel familiar?” Kenta asks, puzzled.

“It does,” replies Sora. She focuses on the chakra and tries to remember where she’s felt it before. “I think from the Academy. Judging by the person’s chakra level, I would say they’re about Chunin level.”

Kenta looks a bit baffled. “Has one of the Academy Instructors turned rogue?” The idea is a bit ludicrous to him. How could a Chunin think he could escape from the Anbu with something as important as the Forbidden Scroll? Nobody with any loyalty to the village would allow him to leave alive.

Iruka attempts to sense the chakra of the thief. They are a few miles away from his location, so it is a bit difficult for him. However, he’s had practice tracking down Naruto’s chakra whenever his student skips class to play pranks. He may not be able to sense emotions like the Hakuos can, but he should be able to identify the thief’s chakra.

Iruka’s eyes widen when he realizes who the chakra belongs to. “That’s Mizuki. Did he really steal the Forbidden Scroll?” he asks, shocked.

Kenta and Sora exchange determined looks. They know, without a doubt, that they’re sensing the thief’s chakra. “One Chunin against a Chunin and four genin. What do you think his odds are?” asks Kenta with a sly grin.

“What?” asks Iruka. “You said you were going to alert the Anbu, not fight him.”

“That was before we knew we were dealing with a weakling. Also, Mizuki was one of Naruto’s teachers. Mizuki has betrayed our cousin’s trust. Our honor as Hakuo demand that we get justice,” says Sora.

“I never liked him,” says Sasuke, pulling out a kunai.

Naruto looks determined. “We can’t let Mizuki take the scroll.”

Iruka tries to protest, but the four genin ignore him and run off to confront Mizuki. Iruka gives a sigh of exasperation and follows after them. Why were children so impulsive? The Anbu could have dealt with Mizuki; they didn’t need to do it themselves. He knew they felt personally betrayed by Mizuki, just as he did, but they shouldn’t risk their life for revenge.

“Do we have a plan?” asks Sasuke.

Kenta pulls out explosive tags and ninja wire. “We’re going to capture him and hand him over to the Anbu for interrogation.”

Sasuke would like to point out that is a goal not a plan, but they’ve already arrived. Mizuki is leaping from branch to branch towards the village wall. The Chunin looks over his shoulder and sees them. His expression is a mix between surprise and rage.

Mizuki stops running and grabs one of the large shuriken from his back. “Do you really think a bunch of brats can defeat me?” he asks.

“Obviously, or we wouldn’t be here,” says Sora.

Kenta and Sora throw their explosive tags, attached to kunai, at Mizuki. He dodges, though the force of the explosion causes him to stumble. Mizuki finally throws the large shuriken at them, but they are easily able to dodge it. They’ve trained with Kira before, and she throws weapons faster. Does that mean that Kira is definitely Chunin level or that Mizuki is weak?

Right after Mizuki throws the shuriken, Iruka sneaks up behind him and punches him in the face. The two of them fight proceed to fight using taijutsu while the rest of them plan out how to capture Mizuki.

Naruto creates several dozen shadow clones and Kenta pulls Iruka out of the way as the clones throw several dozen shuriken at Mizuki. The man dodges all but a few of them. Kenta can feel the man’s anger. “You damn fox!” says Mizuki.

“Mizuki,” says Iruka warningly. Speaking about that was forbidden. Was Mizuki so confident that he would get away that he would reveal an S-class secret?

Naruto looks between Mizuki and Iruka-sensei, confused. He didn’t understand why Mizuki had called him a fox, but Iruka seemed to think it meant something.

Mizuki saw the confusion on Naruto’s face. “Don’t tell me you don’t know?” he asked, gleefully. “The reason that everyone hates you? The one that destroyed our village and killed countless people twelve years ago is you. You are the Kyuubi!”

Naruto was in disbelief. Him…the Kyuubi?

“Don’t listen to him, Naruto. You’re not the Kyuubi,” says Iruka.

Kenta throws a shuriken at Mizuki, who deflects it, but a second shuriken appears from the shadow of the second. Unlike the first one, this shuriken has a modified explosive tag attached to it. Mizuki’s eyes widen as instead of exploding, a gas is released from the shuriken. He tries to get away from it, but the gas works quickly, causing his movements to become sluggish and slow. Sasuke then throws shuriken connected to ninja wire to capture Mizuki.

After a minute, the knock out gas has fully kicked in and Mizuki is unconscious. Sora walks over to him and grabs the Forbidden Scroll. She looks at her cousin who is giving Naruto a concerned glance. “I can’t believe that there’s a ninja who can’t tell the difference between a sealing scroll and the kunai sealed within,” she says.

Naruto and Sasuke turn to look at her. “What was Mizuki talking about earlier?” asks Sasuke.

Kenta and Sora look at Iruka. “Since Mizuki has basically already told him, are we allowed to explain?” asks Kenta.

Iruka looks conflicted but eventually nods. “I think that would be for the best. I wouldn’t want Naruto to misunderstand the situation,” he says.

Naruto and Sasuke look expectantly at them. “Okay, so you know how the bijuu are made of chakra, right? Well, humans can’t kill bijuu. Stronger bijuu can kill weaker bijuu, but they risk their own life in the process. Since the Fourth Hokage couldn’t kill the Kyuubi, he sealed him into you, Naruto,” says Sora.

“It’s better if a bijuu is sealed into an infant. Their chakra coils aren’t as developed and are better able to adapt to the bijuu’s chakra. An adult Uzumaki could probably handle it. I don’t know if it’s a Kekkei Genkai or what, but Mito Uzumaki was able to survive having the Kyuubi sealed into her as well as the Uzumaki woman after her,” says Kenta.

“Those who have bijuu sealed within them are called Jinchuriki. You’re the third Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi,” says Sora.

“The Fourth Hokage wanted the villagers to see you as a hero. If he hadn’t sealed the Kyuubi in you, the whole village would have been destroyed. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. When the Third Hokage realized how the villagers were reacting, he ordered them not to tell anyone else about you being a Jinchuriki. He hoped that if the younger generation didn’t know then they wouldn’t act hateful like their parents,” says Iruka.

“Wait,” says Sasuke. “If it’s illegal to tell the children, how do Sora and Kenta know?”

Naruto looks at them curiously. “You’ve always know, haven’t you? Everyone in the clan, but none of you hate me for it.”

“That’s right,” says Kenta. “But our parents never said it outright that you were the Jinchuriki. They didn’t break the law. What they told us was that it was impossible for a bijuu to be killed; it can only be sealed. Eventually, every one of us figured it out. The way the adult civilians looked at you made it obvious, especially since some of them would mutter the word ‘fox’ or ‘demon.’ ”

“Everyone in our clan is taught about sealing, even the civilians. None of us have mistaken you for the Kyuubi, Naruto. We’ve known you for seven years. We consider you a member of our family, our cousin or brother. Hakuos value loyalty a great deal. You don’t have to worry about us ever turning our back on you,” says Sora.

“And you don’t just have us. I know the Third Hokage thinks of you as like a grandson, and Iruka is fond of you as well,” says Kenta.

Naruto looks at Iruka with hopeful eyes. “Iruka-sensei?”

Iruka steps forward. “You’re Naruto Uzumaki, not the Kyuubi. You’re loyal, hardworking, and creative. I wasn’t able to see that at first, and I’m sorry for that. On that night, the Kyuubi killed my parents; and for the longest time, I couldn’t see past that. After getting to know you, I find it difficult to believe that anyone could mistake you for the fox. You’re too kind to be him. I’ve started to see you as like a little brother, Naruto.”

After that, Iruka drags Mizuki to the Anbu for interrogation and gives the Forbidden Scroll to the Hokage. Once that’s completed, he escorts the children back to the Hakuo clan compound. Sayuri thanks him for bringing the children home safe and says he’s welcome to visit Naruto at the compound. She shows him their version of a doorbell. There is a specific seal on the clan gate that is connected to three other seals, one inside each of the houses. When you channel chakra into the gate seal, then the seals inside the house create a flashing light to let everyone know that there is a visitor. “We can’t let anyone take the visitor seals outside the compound in case they get stolen, so we created this instead,” says Sayuri.

* * *

 

“Team 7 is Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your Jounin-sensei is Kakashi Hatake,” says Iruka.

Sakura is ecstatic to be put on the same team as Sasuke but disappointed that she’ll have to put up with Naruto. She doesn’t like Naruto; he’s always taking Sasuke’s attention away from her. She turns towards Sasuke to ask him to eat lunch with her, but Sasuke and Naruto are already gone.

“Was it alright for us to ditch her like?” asks Naruto. The two of them had snuck out the window while Sakura was distracted. They had then quickly looked for somewhere to hide from Sakura. Sasuke was used to hiding from fangirls and found them an empty classroom to hide in.

“Did you honestly want to listen to her insult you and praise me during our entire lunch hour?” asks Sasuke.

“Well, no. But she’s our teammate now. Kira says we’ll be stuck with our genin team until we become Chunin. We have to learn how to work with her eventually,” replies Naruto.

“Hmph. I’ll work with her when she stops insulting you,” says Sasuke. He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to Sakura that insulting his best friend wasn’t the way to win his love. And it hadn’t occurred to any of his fangirls to ask permission from his clan head to court him. He knew Kira wouldn’t be ask restrictive as his father would have been. Kira would let him choose his own bride as long as the woman wasn’t an enemy of the clan. Still, it was the principle of the thing. It was considered polite to ask the clan head before trying to pursue someone from their clan. Perhaps they didn’t understand because most of them were civilians. He had heard that civilians expected the men to ask the woman’s father for permission to court her.

The Hakuo clan didn’t care about gender though. If Sasuke became interested in someone in the future, he would first be expected to tell Kira. After confirming that the person wasn’t an enemy of the clan, then Sasuke would tell to the person he was interested in to get their permission to court them. After that, he would talk to their clan head or their parents and make sure they didn’t have any objections. Although if the person wasn’t from a clan, it wouldn’t necessarily matter if the parents objected as long the person was willing to be in a relationship with him despite their parent’s objections. It was likely that whoever he married would change their name to Uchiha as he was, technically, the Uchiha clan head.

“Hmm, what are you brooding about now?” asks Naruto curiously.

Sasuke snaps out of his thoughts. “It’s nothing. We should eat now.”

The two of them each pull out a scroll from their pocket. When unrolled, this scroll is several feet long. Every inch of the scroll has a storage seal on it, along with a label underneath it so that they don’t forget which seal contains what item. The items they use the most often are sealed in the front of the scroll while the least used items are sealed in the back.

Their lunch is sealed in the fourth storage seal. “Aunt Yumiko is a good cook,” says Naruto, scarfing down his food.

“She is,” replies Sasuke. He eats just as quickly as Naruto but is less messy. The future Uchiha clan head cannot have bad table manners.

After lunch, they head back to the classroom to wait for their sensei. And wait….and wait….and wait. “What’s taking him so long?” asks Naruto, angrily.

Sasuke, although generally more patient than Naruto, is just as pissed off. It’s been close to three hours, and their sensei still isn’t here. And Sakura has spent the last three hours _staring_ at him. At least she hasn’t tried to talk to him. All she ever wants to do is flirt or ask him out on a date. If she wants him to like her, couldn’t she at least talk about something interesting?

“What are you doing?” asks Sakura. Naruto has climbed onto a stepladder and is placing an eraser on top of the door. “You’re going to get in trouble.”

“Isn’t that kind of tame for someone who’s kept us waiting for three hours?” asks Sasuke.

Naruto looks surprised then grins deviously. “You’re right. I can do better than this,” he says.

Sakura watches curiously as Naruto sets up a more elaborate prank. She didn’t know her teammate knew any sealing, but those definitely looked like storage scrolls. She wondered if their sensei was really going to fall for one of Naruto’s pranks. Jounin were supposed to be elite ninja, right?

The three of them watched the prank unfold as their sensei entered the room. First, the eraser fell on top of him. He started to say something but as he walked farther into the room, he activated the seal on the floor. On the ceiling right above where he was standing, there was a storage seal. Standing on the seal on the floor caused different colored paint to be unsealed from the ceiling.

The three of them couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of their sensei covered in green, pink, and blue paint. It was difficult to see his expression through the mask, but she was sure that he was scowling at them.

“My first impression of you is….I hate you all,” said Kakashi.

That, at least, caused the girl to stop laughing, but the two boys just laughed harder. Kakashi looked curiously at Sasuke. He had expected the last Uchiha to be a bit more stoic. “Originally, I was going to have us introduce ourselves and we’d have the survival test tomorrow. However, I need to wash the paint off. We’ll skip the introductions. Tomorrow, you’ll meet me at Training Ground 3 at five a.m. I suggest you don’t eat unless you want to throw up,” he said.

The girl looked a little bit afraid, but the two boys just continued to look amused. He would make sure they weren’t laughing tomorrow. “You’re not officially genin until you pass my test. If you fail, you get sent back to the Academy.”

“What?” asks Sakura, shocked. “What was the point of the Academy test then if not to make us Genin?”

“That was to see if you have the _potential_ to become Genin. If you couldn’t even pass that test, there’s no way you’d be able to pass the test from a Jounin,” says Kakashi. He looks at the two boys a bit suspiciously. Neither of them is surprised by this information. Who had told them about the Genin test?

“Remember, Training Ground 3 at five a.m. See you,” he says before disappearing using the Body Flicker jutsu.

* * *

**Beep. Beep. Beep.** Naruto squinted at the alarm clock. **4:30 a.m.** There should be a law against waking up this early. He forced himself to get out of bed and go to the kitchen. Sasuke was already there, as he had expected, but finding Kenta there was a surprise.

“Good morning, Naruto,” says Kenta. The older boy sets two plates of food on the table. “Breakfast is ready.”

“Kakashi-sense said we weren’t supposed to eat,” says Naruto. His stomach grumbles in protest.

“Or else we might throw up,” says Sasuke, eyeing the food longingly.

Kenta smiles at their reactions to the food. “Your sensei was also three hours late yesterday. And from what I’ve heard of the man, he’s always late unless it’s a life or death situation. He won’t be there until at least eight. Three hours is plenty of time to digest enough of the food that you won’t throw up.”

Sasuke and Naruto apparently agree with his reasoning because they start eating. “He probably wanted you to be weakened. How can you fight against a Jounin when you’re weak from hunger? I suggest taking some fruit with you for your teammate. If she hasn’t eaten, she’ll be useless during the test,” says Kenta.

“Considering her taijutsu skills, she’ll probably be useless anyways,” says Sasuke.

Naruto frowns at Sasuke but doesn’t say anything. He wished Sasuke wouldn’t be so harsh, but he did have a point right now. Sakura wouldn’t be much use in a fight against a Jounin.

Kenta sighs. “If you pass the genin test, you’ll need to help her train; otherwise she’ll be a liability to you. But as for the test, her usefulness will depend on what the test’s goal is. A lot of Jounin sensei test your teamwork more than your ninja skills. Everyone expects recently graduated Genin to be weak. Just try to work together and do your best. With any luck, you’ll pass.”

“Least encouraging pep talk ever,” says Naruto.

Sasuke grabs a few apples from the fridge. “But thanks anyways, Kenta,” says Sasuke.

“Yeah. See you boys later,” says Kenta.

They arrive at their destination at 5: 30. As they had expected, Kakashi-sensei isn’t there yet, but Sakura is waiting for them on the bridge.

“Good morning, Sasuke-kun,” says Sakura cheerfully, and then flatly, “Naruto.”

“Hn.”

“Good morning, Sakura-san,” says Naruto.

Sakura looks between the two of them curiously. “You got here at the same time. Did you walk together?”

“Yeah. Sasuke and I live near each other. We met up on the way here,” says Naruto.

_‘She doesn’t know where I live,_ ’ thinks Sasuke. ‘ _I suppose that means she’s never followed me home. I guess, at the very least, she’s not a stalker like some of my other fangirls.’_

Sakura notices the apples in Sasuke’s hands. Confused, she says, “I thought Kakashi-sensei said we weren’t supposed to eat.”

Sasuke shrugs. “Technically, you could look at it like a suggestion since he added the ‘or else you’ll throw up.’ However, a relative of mine has said that Kakashi being late is rather common. Naruto and I didn’t want to wait three hours on an empty stomach and then try to fight a Jounin. I brought the apples in case you haven’t eaten.”

“For me?” she asks, pleased.

Sasuke grimaces. “Yes. If we’re going to be teammates, then we should look out for each other.” His eyes narrow. “Which means you should at least attempt to get along with Naruto. I know you don’t like him because I spend more time with him than you. But acting cruelly towards my friends is not the way to get me to like you.”

Sakura’s eyes widen. She looks between Sasuke and Naruto. It hadn’t really occurred to her that her behavior towards Naruto would upset Sasuke. “I’m sorry, Naruto. I’ll try to be nicer,” she says.

Naruto grins. “Thank you, Sakura-san. I’m sure we’ll all get along well.”

Sasuke hands the apples over to Sakura. She thanks him and then begins eating.

“I wonder what kind of test sensei will give us,” says Naruto.

“If we have to fight against him, it would be to our advantage to set up traps ahead of time,” replies Sasuke. He looks at Sakura. “You were decent at making traps in the Academy, weren’t you?”

She nods her head. “I got a slightly above score at trap making,” she replies.

“Good. The three of us can work together and set up traps,” says Sasuke.

“It can be like a team-bonding exercise,” says Naruto, grinning.

The three genin spend the next two hours setting up traps and coming up with plans on how to lure Kakashi into their traps. Sakura was surprised to realize that both her teammates knew how to create storage seals. Naruto agreed to teach her if they passed, as storage seals were too useful for her not to know. If their teammate had to carry all her supplies in a backpack, it could slow her down, thus slowing down the entire team.

Their sensei finally showed up at eight thirty. The three of them stared at him for a moment, silently. “You’re late,” says Sakura.

Kakashi blinks at them. He had expected a stronger reaction from them. “Sorry about that. I got lost on the road of life,” he says cheerfully.

“Uh-huh,” says Naruto skeptically.

“I suppose now that you’re here, you’ll explain what our test is?” asks Sasuke.

Kakashi pulls two bells out of his pocket. “You have until noon to get one of these bells from me. If you get a bell, you pass. If you don’t get a bell, you’ll be sent back to the Academy. Also, those who don’t get a bell will be tied to that tree stump and have to watch the rest of us eat lunch.” Kakashi went over to the tree stumps and set down three bentos.

“But there are only two bells, sensei,” says Sakura.

“Exactly. One of you is definitely getting sent back to the Academy. Two of you could pass, or one of you could pass, or none of you could pass,” says Kakashi. The mask made it difficult to see his face, but Naruto was sure he was smirking.

_‘I could get separated from Sasuke-kun!’_ thinks Sakura, staring at Kakashi in horror. Naruto looks at the bells, puzzled, while Sasuke just looks annoyed.

“The test begins…now,” says Kakashi. The three genin vanish into the forest. He can tell where they’re at by sensing their chakra. _‘They went in the same direction,’_ he thinks. _‘How odd. The other teams always split up at this point. Have they somehow figured out what this test is really about?’_

“I think we’re out of hearing range now,” says Sasuke.

Sakura looks worried. “Our plan depended on the three of us working together. How can we get the bells from Kakashi-sensei without teamwork?” she asks. _‘Naruto and Sasuke could have set those traps without me. They don’t need me; and I know Sasuke would rather be on a team with Naruto instead of me.’_ she thinks sadly.

“That might be the point, though,” says Naruto. “One Genin is no match for a Jounin, but three Genin might have a chance.”

“According to Aunt Yumiko, all Genin are put in teams of three with a Jounin sensei. Would the Hokage have made an exception for Kakashi or is he just bluffing?” asks Sasuke.

“Why would he lie about that though?” Sakura asks, but the answer occurs to her before they can say anything. “He’s trying to turn us against each other. The real test is to see if we can work together, to put the team first instead of being selfish.”

“Konoha is known for its teamwork. On missions, Konoha nin will sacrifice their lives to save their comrades,” says Sasuke.

“Kakashi-sensei wants to see if we have that same mindset,” says Naruto.

“So if we work as a team, he should let us all pass?” asks Sakura hopefully.

Sasuke shrugs. “If he doesn’t, we’ll just have to try again next year with a more reasonable sensei.”

“If he was actually serious about sending one of us back, then I don’t think I’d want him as a sensei. We don’t need someone who would try to teach us to stab our comrades in the back,” says Naruto.

“We should get started then. We’ve only got three hours to get the bells from Kakashi,” says Sasuke.

Kakashi looked up from the book he was reading when he heard the sound of shrunken being thrown at him. He pulled out a kunai and deflected them. _‘I guess they’re finally making their move. I was starting to wonder if they’d given up,’_ he thinks.

About a dozen Naruto’s emerged from the woods and began to attack him. Who had taught a Genin the Shadow Clone jutsu? It was easy enough for him to dispel the clones, though he noticed as he was fighting them that they weren’t using the Academy’s taijutsu style. He thought it was familiar, but couldn’t remember who he had seen fighting like that. He would ask Naruto who had trained him later.

One of his attacks sent the real Naruto flying over to the river a few feet away. He noticed with a great deal of surprise that instead of landing in the water, Naruto landed on top of the water. How did Naruto have average marks in the Academy if he could already do the Water-walking technique?

Several shuriken came flying out of the forest towards him. It seems that one of the Genin had tried to take advantage of his surprise to get a hit in. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work. Sasuke emerged from the forest and attacked him using taijutsu. He recognized Sasuke’s style of fighting as the Uchiha’s taijutsu style. He also noticed that Sasuke’s way of fighting involved more flexibility when the kid almost grabbed one of the bells after trying to kick him in the face.

He looked down in surprise when he felt the weight of his book disappear. Sakura had snuck up to him while he was fighting Naruto and Sasuke and had grabbed his book. He had been expecting the kids to only go after the bells, so it hadn’t occurred to him to be on guard against book theft!

As Sakura ran into the forest with his book, he was prevented from immediately going after her by Naruto and Sasuke. He knocks both of them away from him and runs after Sakura. He catches up to her quickly, but several dozen shuriken fly at him before he can grab her. He dodges them and looks around to see who threw them, but no one is there. Instead, he sees seal paper stuck to a tree branch. Had the children set up traps around the forest?

He can sense Sasuke and Naruto nearby. Instead of coming towards him, they seem to be circling his location, always staying just out of sight.

He catches sight of Sakura again. The girl has slowed down and is out of breath. This time it’s a blue gas, instead of shuriken, that prevent him from catching her. The mask blocks some of the smoke from entering his lungs, but it still causes him to cough and his eyes are watering. His nose, which is more sensitive than the average person’s, feels like its burning. _‘This smells like some kind of pepper and onion spray. The blue is probably from a dye,’_ he thinks.

Kakashi spends the next hour dodging projectile weapons and balloons full of paint. At some point, Naruto gets the book from Sakura and creates several shadow clones. So now he has to find the real Naruto to get his book back. It’s after he’s dispelled the twelfth shadow clone that he begins to stumble. Confused, he looks at the paint on his clothes with suspicion. He brings his arm to his nose and sniffs the paint. The strong chemical smell of the paint was hiding the chemical smell of a poison. He assumes it’s a type of knock out gas, as he doesn’t think his students would be trying to kill him.

Whatever it is, it knocks him out within a few minutes. He wakes to the sound of a buzzer going off. He’s lying in the clearing, next to the logs. The alarm clock reads **12:00 p.m.** The gas had knocked him out for about an hour. He slowly sits up, feeling somewhat lightheaded.

“Kakashi-sensei is awake,” says Naruto. The genin walks over to him, grinning, and holds up a bell. “I bet you weren’t expecting us to actually get them, eh sensei?”

“I am a bit surprised,” he says as he stands up. “The three of you worked together, but there are only two bells. So, which one of you is going back to the Academy?”

The three genin exchange glances before looking back at him. “That isn’t an option, sensei. Either we all pass or we all fail,” says Naruto.

“We’re comrades. Stabbing each other in the back goes against everything the Academy taught us,” says Sasuke.

“We wouldn’t have been able to get the bells if we didn’t work together. I don’t want to pass if it means one of them fails,” says Sakura.

Kakashi smiles. “If that’s how you feel, then you three……..pass!” he says, cheerfully.

Naruto lets out a cheer and the other two genin smile. “We should get ramen to celebrate,” says Naruto. “Ichiraku makes the best ramen in the village.”

“Sounds good. And Serena isn’t here to restrict how many bowls you eat,” Sasuke says, amused.

“What about you, Sakura-san, Kakashi-sensei?” asks Naruto.

Sakura looks at Sasuke and blushes. “Ramen sounds good,” she says. _‘If I only eat one bowl, it shouldn’t mess with my diet too much,’_ she thinks.

“I’ll come as well. I’ll even pay for one bowl for each of you, as a graduation present,” says Kakashi.

“Thank you, sensei.”

The four of them then head to the restaurant. “Good afternoon, Naruto-kun,” says Ayami. “I see you’ve brought some new friends with you.”

“Ayame-chan, Teuchi-san. This is my genin team. You’ve already met Sasuke. The other two are Sakura-san and Kakashi-sensei,” says Naruto.

“It’s nice to meet you. What would you like to eat?” asks Teuchi.

The four of them place their orders and sit down. Naruto loves to eat at Ichiraku, not just because of the food, but because Ayame and Teuchi are friends of his. Rina had brought him here for the first time when he was six years old. Ayame and Teuchi had been wary of him at first, but Rina had convinced them not to kick him out. He still remembers what she said to them.

_“This is Naruto Uzumaki. He’s never had ramen before, which I think is a shame. Everyone should be able to enjoy ramen, don’t you think, Teuchi-san? In fact, it would be a shame if no one was ever able to eat your ramen again. You don’t mind me bringing Naruto here, do you, Teuchi-san?” asks Rina with what Serena referred to as her ‘wolf smile.’_

_(“A wolf smile because it reminds us of the way a mama wolf might smile before ripping out the throat of someone who hurt her cub,” Serena had told him later.)_

_Teuchi looks at Rina, slightly wide-eyed. “I don’t mind at all,” he says with a nervous smile. “You can bring him here anytime.”_

To this day, Naruto still isn’t sure if Rina had been threatening Teuchi’s life or his ramen shop. Either one would have made it impossible for someone to try his ramen. Threats aside, Teuchi and Ayame eventually grew to become close friends of theirs.

 


	5. Chapter Four

**Naruto and Sasuke, age 12:**

“For your next mission, you could help Hikaru-san weed her garden, watch Yuna-san’s children, or….,” said the Hokage before being interrupted by Naruto.

“No way! We’ve been doing D-rank missions or rather, chores, for the past two months. Can’t we have a C-rank mission yet? It doesn’t have to be a really dangerous one, but anything is better than D-ranks,” says Naruto.

Iruka frowns at him. “You’ve only been Genin for two months. C-rank missions are meant for Chunin. What makes you think you’re ready for a mission like that?”

“Border patrol is also a C-rank mission, isn’t it?” asks Sasuke. “Along with guarding civilians against bandits. I don’t think all C-rank missions are as dangerous as you’re implying. We have enough skill to deal with bandits; and if we did run into an enemy nin, would Kakashi-sensei, a Jounin, not be able to handle it?”

“Well, yes, I suppose he would,” says Iruka reluctantly.

“And what about you, Sakura?” asks the Hokage. “Do you wish to do a C-rank mission as well?”

“Yes, sir. Naruto, Sasuke, and I have been training together since we became teammates. I think we’re ready,” she says. _‘No more chores please. I’ll go crazy if I have to catch that demon cat one more time,’_ she thinks.

“Hmm. Very well, I think I know just the right mission for you,” says the Hokage. Iruka looks like he’s about to protest, but Sarutobi holds up his hand for him to wait. “As for Iruka’s concerns for safety, I believe sending a Chunin along with them should ensure that nothing goes wrong. Three Genins, one Chunin, and one Jounin will be enough for this mission, don’t you think?”

“Who will you be sending with us?” asks Kakashi.

“There’s a young woman who’s recently taken the Chunin Exams. This will be her first mission as a Chunin, but she has gone on C-rank missions with her teammates before. Her name is Kira Hakuo,” says Sarutobi.

Sasuke and Naruto’s eyes widen. “Kira is back?” asks Naruto excitedly.

“She just returned. She’s in the other room actually. She was about to go find you, but decided to wait here when she sensed your team coming here,” says Sarutobi.

One of the doors open and Kira steps into the room. She smiles at them. “It’s good to be back home. Serena is back at the compound. The two of you can say good-bye to her before we leave for our mission,” she says.

Her eyes flicker over to Sakura, who is watching her curiously. “You must be Sakura-san. I’m Sasuke’s cousin and Naruto’s adopted sister.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Kira-san,” says Sakura.

“And you’re Kakashi Hatake, their Jounin sensei. Thank you for training them, Kakashi-san,” says Kira with a neutral smile. Despite her words, Kakashi gets the feeling that she doesn’t like him.

Naruto looks at the Hokage. “So what’s our mission?” he asks.

“You’re going to be guarding a bridge builder named Tazuna as he travels back home to the Land of Waves,” says the Hokage. He nods to one of the guards, who then opens the door to let Tazuna into the room.

The man who enters the room reeks of alcohol and is carrying a bottle of sake. “These are the people who are supposed to be guarding me?” he scoffs. “They’re just a bunch of brats. They don’t look like they could fight off bandits, especially the small one with the idiotic face.”

Kira’s eyes widen in shock then narrow in rage. Before the genin can react to Tazuna’s insults, she speaks up. “I have to wonder if you secretly have a death wish, Tazuna-san, considering that you’re insulting the people hired to guard your life. It would damage Konoha’s reputation if we let you die; but if you insult us too often, we might not care.”

Tazuna’s face pales as he stares at her in shock. Kira walks towards him, smiling coldly. “You look at us and compare us to civilian children. That is a mistake.”

“In any case, Tazuna-san, I’m a Jounin,” interrupts Kakashi, “I’ll be able to handle any bandits that come after us. Even in the unlikely case that we’re attacked by foreign ninja, I should be able to handle it.”

She glances over at the bridge builder when she senses _guilt_ from him. She notices Sasuke is looking at the old man suspiciously. Was Sasuke starting to be able to sense emotions as well?

“We should meet at the village gates in two hours. That should give us enough time to pack supplies. The mission shouldn’t take more than two weeks, so pack accordingly,” says Kakashi before leaving.

* * *

When the three of them got back to the compound, they found Serena in the living room, sewing storage seals into her new clothes; the two of them had bought a few new outfits from Kumo. Every time they got new clothes, a storage steal had to be sewn into it. Every article of their clothing-socks, underwear, shirts, and pants-had some kind of weapon sealed into it. Maybe it was extreme, but it meant that they would never be without a weapon in case of attack. She had heard stories as a child of how these hidden weapons had saved a few of her ancestor’s lives.

“Welcome back home Serena-neechan,” says Naruto.

“How did you do at the Chunin Exam?” asks Sasuke.

“I got promoted, as did one of my teammates. I think the other one will be taking the next Chunin exams with Kira’s teammates. You have to have three genin to take the test,” says Serena.

“We asked around a bit,” says Kira, “and it turns out that all the Chunin exams have a similar structure. There are three tests; the first one is always some form of written exam and the third is always a fight between the genins.”

“Sometimes, the written exam is meant to test your information gathering skills. They’ll have Chunin who know the answers pretending to be genin, and you have to find a way to see their test answers. If you’re too obvious about it, they fail you. Our written exam tested our strategy skills. We were given a scenario, and we had to come up with a plan for how we’d succeed,” says Serena.

“During our second test, they had us act out some of the scenarios from the first test. It wasn’t enough to just come up with a plan; we had to be able to use the plan. Chunins need the strength and skill to successfully complete their strategies,” says Kira.

“The first two tests also had to do with teamwork. If one teammate failed, then so did the entire team,” says Serena. “But the third test was about individual skill. It was like a tournament. If you lost one fight, you were out. If you won, you went on to the next battle until there was only one person left.”

“Who won the tournament?” asks Sasuke.

“I did,” says Kira.

“That’s awesome. I always knew you were strong, Kira-neechan,” says a grinning Naruto.

Kira laughs. “Strong for a Chunin, yes. I don’t think I’d stand much chance against a Jounin though. But I won the tournament because I had Ravka’s help. All that extra chakra allowed me to use all the ninjutsu I know when I needed them. Not having to worry about chakra exhaustion is a blessing for a ninja.”

“Your skill with water ninjutsu has improved over the past three years. And your use of exploding tags certainly helped,” says Serena. She looks at Naruto and Sasuke. “I came in third. Unfortunately, my last opponent was just as skilled in genjutsu as I was. I’ll need to work on my taijutsu skills. My opponent was stronger than I was, and eventually managed to knock me unconscious. Still, I managed to land a few good hits on him, and displayed enough skill to earn a promotion.”

Kira looked at the clock. They had an hour before they had to be at the village gates.

“Time to check our supplies,” she says.

She gets out her storage scroll and the boys do the same. They spend the next half hour making sure they have everything they need. Food, clothes, weapons, and camping gear.

“Alright, time to head out,” she says. The three of them hug Serena good-bye and head to the gate.

Sakura, Kakashi, and Tazuna are already there when they arrive. “Are we late or is Kakashi-sensei actually on time for once?” asks Naruto.

“I’m never late unless it’s a life or death situation. As none of us are bleeding from fatal wounds, I’d say Kakashi-san is on time,” replies Kira.

“He’s capable of being a professional then,” says Sasuke.

“His paycheck depends on it. You piss off too many clients by being tardy and you get a bad reputation. Then you have civilians specifically requesting that you _not_ be assigned to their mission. He has to play nice for the clients if he wants to be able to keep buying those books of his,” says Kira.

The boys look at her, surprised. “You know about the books he reads?” asks Sasuke.

“A lot of people do. He reads them as he walks down the street,” she says.

They stop talking as they reach the rest of the group. “Well, now that everyone’s here, we can head out,” says Kakashi.

Once they’re outside the gate, Naruto starts looking around curiously. The blond-haired genin practically bounces down the path. “What has you so hyper?” asks Tazuna.

“This is my first time outside the village. It’s exciting,” replies Naruto.

Tazuna eyes Naruto skeptically. “Acting this childish doesn’t inspire confidence,” he says.

Naruto scowls. “You’re worrying for nothing. We’ll keep you safe, no problem. You’re looking at the future Hokage, you know,” he exclaims.

Tazuna bursts out laughing. “A brat like you, the Hokage? I seriously doubt that.”

“I guess it’s a good it’s not up to you then,” says Kira. “Civilians are bad at judging strength. I’ve seen Naruto’s potential while training with him. There’s not a doubt in my mind that he’ll become Hokage someday.”

Naruto grins at Kira, touched by her faith in him. Tazuna, though, looks at her with a surprised expression. What had the kid done to earn her respect? He decided not to argue with her further. She had been correct, earlier, when she said it was a bad idea to insult your hired bodyguards.

They’re about a third of the way to their destination when Kira notices a suspicious puddle. She can tell that Sasuke and Kakashi have noticed it as well. She doesn’t know if Kakashi has sensed the human chakra within the puddle, as she and Sasuke have, of if he’s simply realized that it hasn’t rained in a week. A puddle of this size should have evaporated by now.

She watches, unsurprised, as two enemy nin jump out of the puddle and lunge for Kakashi. As the chains wrap around the Jounin and he turns into water, she wonders how the enemy had hidden themselves in a puddle. Was it some kind of water ninjutsu or just a simple genjutsu?

“Kakashi-sensei!” exclaims Sakura in horror. Did the girl actually believe the man was dead? Though judging by the enemies’ reaction, they believed the same thing. Since when did ninja mistake water for blood?

Sasuke and Naruto don’t hesitate to engage the enemy while Sakura stays back to guard Tazuna. At one point, the enemy throws a shuriken at Tazuna but it passes right through him. It seems that Kakashi was not lax with their training, to have already taught Sakura a genjutsu.

She observes the fight a moment longer. Naruto and Sasuke actually seem to be holding their own. It’s quite impressive, considering that these opponents are at the level of low Chunin. Still, the longer the fight goes on, the higher the risk that the boys will get injured.

She goes to help Sasuke first, as he does not have increased healing abilities like Naruto does. The two of them easily subdue their opponent and restrain him with his own chains. While they’re doing this, Kakashi comes out of hiding and knocks out Naruto’s opponent.

“Why did you pretend to be dead?” asks Tazuna.

Kakashi gives him an unfriendly look. “I was checking to see who their target was: you or us.”

“I could have told you that,” says Kira, bemused. “Most of their negative emotion was focused on Tazuna. We were just obstacles in their way.”

Kakashi frowns at Tazuna. “C-rank missions don’t involve fighting enemy nin. Why did you lie about the mission details?”

Tazuna looks guilty. “No one in Wave can afford more than a C-rank. The tyrant, Gatou, is heavily taxing all the ships that travel to and from Wave. I’m trying to build a bridge to help our economy,” he says.

“I find it irritating that none of us knew about this. With how close Wave is to Konoha, someone should have heard about this. Don’t we have any kind of Intelligence gathering unit?” asks Kira.

“We do, actually. Like every other ninja village, Konoha has its own spy network. The fact that no one has noticed this has troubling implications,” says Kakashi.

“Corruption. Bribery, perhaps?” says Sasuke.

“Yes, but right now we need to focus on the problem at hand. Should we continue the mission or return to Konoha?” asks Kakashi.

Naruto looks at him in astonishment. “Of course we’re going to finish the mission! We can’t just let Gatou terrorize them. If their economy is really bad that means there are people who are starving, doesn’t it? We can’t just abandon everyone in Wave because we _might_ get hurt,” he says.

Kakashi thinks about Naruto’s words, feeling conflicted. Helping the people of Wave would be the right thing to do, but he doesn’t want his students to get injured or killed.

“We were able to handle low Chunin level opponents,” says Sasuke to Kakashi. “Kira can handle high Chunin level opponents, and I’m sure you could handle a Jounin.”

“I think we should try, sensei. I don’t want to be the kind of ninja who gives up because the mission is difficult,” says Sakura.

Kira looks at the girl in surprise. She knows what the girl was like during the Academy from stories that Naruto and Sasuke have told her. Something or someone must have inspired the girl to take her training more seriously.

“Very well. Since you all feel so strongly about it, we’ll continue the mission,” says Kakashi.

“Thank you,” says Tazuna gratefully.

It takes them another day to reach the Land of Waves. A friend of Tazuna’s gives them a ride in his boat. Kira, not liking the idea of being squished on a small boat with five other people, decides to walk beside the boat instead. Tazuna and his friend are surprised, so Kira explains that chakra lets you stick to things.

“Sakura can water walk now, too,” says Naruto. “We helped her learn after she saw us walking up the trees.”

“Good. We’d be at a disadvantage in this terrain if we couldn’t water walk,” says Kira.

They reached the shore, thanked Tazuna’s friend, and began to follow the old man home. She sensed the enemy’s chakra before she heard the sound of a blade being thrown at them.

“Get down!” says Kakashi.

They all duck down, with Sakura pulling Tazuna down with her just in case he doesn’t react fast enough. The large blade that embeds itself into the tree in front of them looks familiar.

_‘That’s one of the swords that belongs to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist,’_ thinks Kira.

Kakashi recognizes their opponents. “You’re Zabuza Momochi, also called the Demon of the Hidden Mist.”

“And you’re Kakashi of the Sharingan, the man who’s copied a thousand jutsu,” replies Zabuza.

_‘He’s a Jounin level opponent. Kakashi should be able to handle him. Should I mention the person hiding in the forest? He seems to be Zabuza’s ally,’_ thinks Kira.

**_‘One opponent at a time is enough,’ says Ravka. ‘Focus on Zabuza and deal with the other man if he comes out of hiding.’_ **

Kira can agree with that reasoning and turns her attention back to Zabuza. She watches curiously as the area becomes covered in mist. However, she is unimpressed by Zabuza’s speech about silent killing. It isn’t really possible to sneak up on an Hakuo. However, the fear coming from the genin beside her is concerning. They must not have experienced Killing Intent before.

“Don’t worry, guys. I’ll protect the four of you with my life,” says Kakashi.

Kira can sense the other genin relaxing, but all she feels is offense. “I don’t need protection,” she states flatly. Kakashi looks startled by her response.

She senses a clone of Zabuza’s head towards her. “Cocky little brat, aren’t you?” he asks.

She ducks as he swings his blade at her. The sword passes over her head, and she lashes out with a kunai. The weapon digs into his ankle, causing the clone to dispel. It seems that water clones aren’t any more durable than shadow clones.

“It will take more than a clone to kill me,” she says coldly.

She watches the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, slightly impressed. They are stronger than her, but she’s certain she’ll be at their level in a couple years. She takes note of the jutsu they’re using. She had been trying to learn the Water Dragon before the Chunin exams had started—a few more weeks of training and she’ll have it mastered—but the water prison Zabuza uses on Kakashi is new to her.

_‘So much for that whole “I’ll protect you” thing he was saying earlier,’_ thinks Kira.

“Run! Get as far away as you can!” shouts Kakashi.

Kira eyes the Zabuza clone skeptically while Naruto assures Kakashi that they’re not leaving him behind. “How do you even expect us to escape, anyway? His clones will attack our backs if we flee,” she says. “We have a better chance of success if we stay and fight.”

“There’s also the fact that you’re the sensei of an honorary member of my clan and someone with Hakuo blood. According to Clan Law, as the Clan Head, I’m honor bound to help you,” says Kira.

“What?” asks Kakashi, shocked.

She gives him a disgruntled look. “You were taught by an honorary Hakuo clan member. Didn’t he ever tell you any of this?”

“I think we have more important things to worry about,” says Sasuke. “Like not letting Zabuza drown our sensei.”

“Shadow clone jutsu!” says Naruto, creating about a dozen clones. They rush at the Zabuza clone, but he cuts them down easily.

Kira frowns, eyes darting between the clone and the original. It won’t be so easy to take down Zabuza’s clone a second time, without the advantage of surprise. Unless she does something shocking. Mind made up, she unseals an Hakuo kunai from her belt. This kunai is dark purple, has several seals engraved upon it, and is made from chakra-conductive metal that was harvested in the Void dimension.

She places her index finger through the ring at the end of the handle and begins to spin it. She slowly channels chakra through the kunai and watches her chakra blade form. It would be impossible to do this while not spinning the blade because the vibrations would knock the blade out of her hand. Instead, she channels the momentum of the vibrations into the spin, allowing for stability.

The vibrations slow down after the chakra blade has formed and been locked into place by the seals. She slows the spinning down enough for her to snatch it out of the air.

She doesn’t give her surprised opponent enough time to react and rushes at him. He brings his blade up to slash her, but she cuts through it and him with her chakra weapon, dispelling him.

At the same time, Naruto and Sasuke have come up with a plan of their own. Sasuke throws a Windmill Shuriken at the real Zabuza, who snatches the weapon out of the air. A second shuriken appears out of the shadow of the first and Zabuza leaps over it. But, before he can gloat, the shuriken transforms into Naruto. The blond genin throws a kunai at Zabuza’s arm, thus forcing the man to release Kakashi in order to deflect it.

After that, the fight doesn’t last very long. Kakashi creates a large wall of water that knocks Zabuza around; and then, out of nowhere, senbon come from the forest and dig into Zabuza’s neck. Kakashi proclaims Zabuza dead and seems to believe the kid in the mask is a hunter nin from Mist.

_‘That’s Zabuza’s accomplice,’_ she thinks, alarmed. She assesses the situation. Kakashi is about to pass out from chakra exhaustion, which means she’d have to protect him, the genin, and the client while facing off against a high Chunin level opponent who’s chakra feels like ice. If the kid has a bloodline limit, it could give him the advantage. She decides to keep quiet for now and watches the kid take off with Zabuza’s maybe-not-dead body.

While Kakashi talks to the genin, Kira creates a shadow clone and walks over to him. They get there just in time to catch him when he faints.

“Kakashi-sensei!” says the three genin, concerned.

“What happened?” asks Tazuna.

“Relax everyone. It’s just chakra exhaustion. He used a lot of ninjutsu and the sharingan requires a steady flow of chakra while it’s in use. He’ll be fine after he’s rested. Now, Tazuna-san, if you could lead us to your house?” says Kira expectantly.

“Yes, of course. It’s only a few miles from here,” says Tazuna.

Kira is pleased when they reach their destination. Kakashi is heavy and she’ll be glad to set him down. And perhaps she should lift weights when they get back to Konoha to improve her strength. Who knows when she’ll next need to carry one of her teammates to safety?

Once inside, Tazuna’s daughter, Tsunami, leads her to a guest room to set Kakashi down. Tsunami brings her bandages; but as Kira has no medical training, she sets them on the dresser next to the bed. When Kakashi wakes up, he can assess whether anything is broken, sprained, or cut. As far as she can tell, he isn’t bleeding; and she deems it unnecessary to undress him to check. If there were any fatal cuts, then there would be enough blood to soak through his clothes.

When the genin want to take this opportunity to look underneath Kakashi’s mask, she says no. “A team is about trust. If your teammates can’t even trust you not to undress them, then they certainly can’t trust you to have their back on a mission,” she says.

The three of them reluctantly agree, and the four of them head downstairs. After that, Kira decides to walk around town to get a feel for how bad the situation in Wave is. And what she sees infuriates her. There’s not enough food for everyone, and what little there is, is overpriced. She’s going to kill Gatou the first chance she gets.

Before that, though, she needs to help these people. She makes her way to the ocean and creates five shadow clones. She unseals three large fishing nets and gets to work. With two people holding each net, one on each side, they walk out onto the water. After finding a spot with fish, they lower the net into the water and scoop the fish up. They do this several times and seal the fish they catch into storage scrolls.

She keeps some of the fish in a separate scroll to give to Tsunami, and then sends her clones out to give the fish to the townspeople. The families with children will get fish first and what’s left will be given to everyone else. And if anyone there is one of Gatou’s henchmen, then he doesn’t get any fish.

With nothing else to do, she heads back to the house. Like she had expected, Tsunami is thrilled by her offering of fish. “I figured it was only fair that we contribute to the food supply. I saw how little food there was at the market; and I don’t want us to eat you out of house and home,” says Kira.

* * *

Kakashi wakes up the next morning, to everyone’s relief. He has a few cuts that are easily bandaged, a sprained ankle, and depleted chakra coils. He should be recovered within a few days.

She can tell the man is thinking deeply about something and he occasionally sends her puzzled looks. “Are you thinking about that fake hunter nin?” she asks.

“You knew he was a fake?’ asks Kakashi with a frown.

She gives him a disgruntled look. “Did you expect me to engage the enemy when you were about to pass out? Am I to fight an opponent of equal strength to myself while protecting five other people?”

“…..you can sense quite a bit,” he says after a moment of contemplative silence. Thinking about how the hunter nin had taken the body instead of disposing it right away had caused him to wonder if the kid was a fake, but until now he hadn’t understood how he could have fooled Kira’s senses if that were true.

Naruto makes an irritated noise. She looks at him in surprise. The three genin all seem confused. She hadn’t meant to leave them out of the conversation.

“So what does this mean, exactly?” asks Sasuke.

“That hunter nin was a fake. With what I sensed from him, he’s definitely working for Zabuza,” says Kira.

“Then why would he kill Zabuza?” asks a baffled Sakura.

“I don’t think he did,” says Kakashi. “Senbon are able to hit precise pressure points, some of which can give the appearance of death.”

“So we’re going to have to fight him again?” asks Naruto.

“Yes, though probably not for about a week. Being put into that death-like state will have weakened him, and he’ll need time to recover,” says Kakashi.

“Do you think a week is enough time to find Gatou?” asks Kira.

“Hmm. You’re thinking of taking down Gatou so that Zabuza won’t have any reason to fight us?” asks Kakashi.

“Exactly. He’s only after Tazuna because he’s getting paid,” says Kira.

“What if he gets angry that we took away the person giving him money?” asks Sakura.

“That is a good point. Perhaps we’ll find a safe in Gatou’s hideout. If we can give him the money Gatou promised him, then he should leave us alone,” replies Kira.

“And if this plan fails, then we have to fight Zabuza and his ally,” says Sasuke flatly.

“Yes, well, hopefully it won’t come to that,” says Kira. “Now, some of us will have to stay with Tazuna and his family. As Naruto and I can create shadow clones, we’ll search the forest for Gatou’s hideout. Sasuke and Sakura will go with Tazuna while he’s working on the bridge. Kakashi-san should stay here to rest as he’s in no condition to fight. And in case Gatou sends anyone to hurt Tsunami and her son, Naruto and I will leave a couple of shadow clones here.”

“Huh. You’re kind of bossy,” says Kakashi.

“You have an objection?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

“No, no. Your plan is fine,” he replies, waving his hand in dismissal.

“Then let’s get started.”

* * *

It actually doesn’t take her very long to find Gatou’s hideout. All she has to do is follow the chakra signatures to find the warehouse full of Gatou’s illegally obtained merchandise. She’s never met the man, but the most arrogant chakra is on the top floor. And about a dozen terrified people are in the basement, all of them women.

When she reports this to Kakashi, she can tell the implications make him as sick as they made her. There’s only one reason they can think of for there to be terrified women in the basement. Who knew her assassination plan would also turn into a rescue mission?

Kakashi tried to insist he should go with them, but quit protesting at her look of disbelief.

“Zabuza and his ally aren’t anywhere near the warehouse, nor is any other ninja. Do you think a Chunin and two Genin will honestly have difficulty against a bunch of civilians?” asks Kira.

After thinking about what he’s seen of Naruto and Sasuke’s skills during training, he reluctantly admits that they should be fine against just civilians. He still worries though.

Kira is unsurprised that Sakura is upset at being left behind, but someone has to guard Tazuna. And Kira worried that the girl wouldn’t be able to handle killing anyone if it came to that. Sakura was more innocent than the boys. Although Naruto and Sasuke had never killed a human, they at least had experience killing animals.

Naruto leaves a shadow clone with Kakashi at Tsunami’s house, and Kira leaves her own clone with Sakura to guard Tazuna while he’s bridge building. She can sense a bit of jealousy from Sasuke as she still hasn’t taught him the shadow clone jutsu, but it still isn’t safe for him. If he wants to learn the jutsu that badly, then he had needs to work on his chakra reserves.

Once they reach the hideout, Kira throws a few kunai at the guard’s feet. The tags attached to each kunai then release knock out gas. The guards don’t have time to shout a warning before the gas has knocked them unconscious.

“Let’s try to use nonlethal methods for now,” says Kira. “We don’t know how many of these people are being forced to work for Gatou, either because he threatened their family or there’s no other way for them to feed their family.” _‘And because I don’t want you to have your first kill so soon,’_ thinks Kira.

“Naruto, I’d like you to create twenty five shadow clones. Ten of them will go to the basement to free the women and escort them back to the village. The other fifteen will stay with the three of us as we knock out Gatou’s henchmen. As far as I can tell, Gatou is currently upstairs,” says Kira.

While she’s talking, Naruto creates the requested shadow clones. “Good. When we go in there, the stairs could be hidden or in plain view. If you reach the stairs before me, don’t go up by yourself. There are more guards upstairs, and I intend to deal with Gatou personally,” she says.

“You’re planning on killing him?” asks Naruto quietly. She can tell the idea of killing someone unnerves him.

“It is, unfortunately, a part of our job. You know Gatou has killed people for selfish reasons. Tazuna told us the story about what happened to Kaiza. You know what Gatou did to Inari’s stepdad isn’t right,” says Kira. “And if we don’t kill Gatou, Zabuza will come after Tazuna. Our team will get injured trying to protect him; one of us could even die. It’s us or Gatou, Naruto.”

Naruto contemplates her words before he nods in acceptance. “Alright. I don’t like it, but I do understand.”

After getting a similar agreement from Sasuke, the three of them enter Gatou’s warehouse and begin their assault. There are only about thirty henchmen currently in the building, so it doesn’t take them long to knock everyone out. There are days when she doesn’t know what to think about civilians. How could they be content being this much weaker than their ninja counterparts?

The three of them are currently in Gatou’s office, staring the man down. He had started off by yelling threats at them; but when they had easily taken down his guards, he had tried offering them bribes. She watched him in contempt as he slowly ran out of things to say. She could feel that the Naruto clones had managed to get the women to safety; and the thought of what Gatou must have done to them only increases her ire. Eventually she gets tired of his babbling and knocks him out with a jab to the neck.

“Now what?” asks Naruto.

“Now we search this entire hideout, starting with this office, for anything of value. And I don’t just mean money or jewels. If Gatou has documents of his crimes and business dealings, then I want them,” says Kira.

“Yes, ma’am,” they say jokingly.

In Gatou’s office, they find a safe filled with money along with a few contracts, one of which has Zabuza’s name on it. _‘Well, this makes things easier. Now we know how much money he’s expecting,’_ thinks Kira.

The money to pay Zabuza won’t even make a dent in the pile of money she found in the safe. She figures that she’ll give about half of the rest of the money to the townspeople. The rest will be distributed evenly between her, the three genin, and Kakashi. It’ll be a nice bonus and this way they’ll actually get the amount of money this mission is really worth.

Among the piles of papers, she finds business documents detailing what Gatou’s business ships and where it’s shipped to. _‘Hmm. This company could make a lot of money even if everything was legal,’_ thinks Kira.

**_‘You plan to take over his company?’ asks Ravka, amused._ **

_‘Why not?’_ she replies.

**_‘Aren’t you a bit young to run a multimillion dollar business?’_ **

_‘Well, I wasn’t planning on running it by myself. I’m going to turn ‘Gatou Industries’ into ‘Hakuo Industries.’ I know a few clan members in the Void who would love an opportunity like this.’_

**_‘But it will only work if you can get Gatou to sign his company over to you.’_ **

_‘That won’t be a problem.’_

“She’s smiling,” Naruto whispers to Sasuke.

Sasuke looks over at Kira and twitches. He knows that smile and it means trouble. “I don’t think I want to be here when she deals with Gatou,” says Sasuke.

“Agreed,” says Naruto. The two of them decide to leave the office and search the rest of the warehouse while Kira interrogates Gatou. Naruto’s clones finish gathering all the valuables in the warehouse just as they hear screaming coming from upstairs. The two of them exchange looks and silently agree that it’s time to leave. Kira can meet them back at Tazuna’s house when she’s done.

* * *

The next day, one of the townspeople finds Gatou’s corpse, looking like he’s been mauled by a bear. Everyone is shocked at first, but then the whole town starts celebrating. And Kakashi seems impressed when she shows him the will she made Gatou create, leaving her all his worldly possessions, including his company.

Kira decides to let Tazuna distribute the money to the townspeople as he knows them best and she trusts that he’ll divide the money up fairly. When she gives the team their portion of the money, Sakura looks like she wants to ask questions but Naruto frantically shaking his head with his arms crossed in an ‘x’ shape causes the girl to fall silent.

Zabuza shouldn’t show up for a few more days, so Kira allows the three genin to wander around the village. She stays with Tazuna while he works on the bridge, but she doubts anyone will attack him now that Gatou is dead. And since she made it look like an accident, there shouldn’t be anyone out looking for revenge.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura run through the forest; using chakra, they stick to the trunks of the trees instead of traveling on the ground. It was a game that Kira had taught Naruto and Sasuke, a variant of ‘the floor is lava’ game. The person who could stay on the tree the longest was the winner. The rules of the game were simple. You had to stay vertical, using chakra, and you could use nonlethal means to knock other people off their tree. It was a good game for ninja to play, as it would allow them to practice chakra control and increase their reserves in a way that was fun.

When Sasuke stops running and stares intently at a spot further in the forest, the other two go over to him to see what’s going on. “What’s wrong?” asks Sakura.

“I think I can sense Zabuza’s ally not too far from here. Should we go talk to him?” asks Sasuke.

“Kira would probably advise against it,” says Naruto. “But it might be the best time to talk to him, away from Zabuza.”

“I think we’d scare him off or cause him to attack if we come up to him directly,” says Sakura.

“So we’ll pretend we’re just passing by,” says Sasuke. “We can act like we’re still playing the game.”

“Since you can sense him, you should lead the way, Sasuke,” says Naruto.

As they passed the clearing where Zabuza’s ally was, joking and laughing with each other to throw off suspicion, they could see that the boy wasn’t wearing his mask and was picking herbs. Naruto pretended to be surprised to see someone there and hopped down to the ground.

“Hi,” says Naruto cheerfully.

“Hello,” replies the other boy cautiously. “What were you doing?”

“My team and I were playing a ninja game. It’s good training.”

“You’re a ninja then?”

“Yep. I’m Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage,” says Naruto, grinning.

“It’s nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. I’m Haku. Tell me, do you have someone to protect?”

Naruto tilts his head slightly, surprised by the question. “I have a lot of people I want to protect-my teammates and family, and even the villagers of Konoha. There’s a certain strength you get when you’re fighting to protect someone else.”

“That is my belief as well,” replies Haku.

“Hmm. The person you want to protect…it’s Zabuza, right?”

“You know?” asks Haku, surprised and alarmed.

“Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Gatou is dead. His body was found this morning, looking like he was mauled by a wild animal.”

“And was he?” asks Haku suspiciously.

“No, but if you want some of the money we found in Gatou’s safe, then you and Zabuza will stick to the official story,” replies Naruto.

“You’d share the money with us? Why?”

“It was Kira’s idea. If we pay you what Gatou promised you, then you’ll have no reason to attack us.”

“True. I’ll need to talk to Zabuza-sama about this, though.”

“Alright. How about we meet here tomorrow at the same time? If Zabuza has agreed to leave us alone, then I’ll give you the money.”

“Agreed. I’ll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun,” says Haku before leaving.

“I think that went well,” says Sasuke, sitting in a nearby tree.

“It did. Let’s go talk to Kira,” replies Naruto. “Race you there!”

The blond genin takes off running, surprising his two teammates. Laughing in between complaints of cheating blondes, the two chase after him, determined to beat him there.

* * *

The next day, Kira goes with Naruto to meet Haku. The other boy is surprised to see her but doesn’t react with hostility to her presence.

“Good morning, Naruto-kun,” greets Haku. “Who is your friend?”

“This is my sister, Kira. She’s here to make sure everything goes alright,” says Naruto.

The blond looks at Haku expectantly. “So, what did Zabuza say?”

“He agreed to your terms. Zabuza-sama’s fight with your team was just business, not personal. Neither of us hold a grudge against your team for killing Gatou.”

Kira relaxes as she senses the truth of Haku’s words. With a smile, she pulls a storage scroll out of her pocket. “That’s good to hear. This scroll contains the money that Gatou promised Zabuza. Feel free to check the amount; I won’t be offended,” she says while handing him the scroll.

As she suggests, he quickly checks the scroll and finds that the amount is correct. “Thank you,” says Haku. “I’m glad that we won’t have to fight each other.”

“Hmm. You have a gentle soul, don’t you? I have a feeling you only fight because of your loyalty to Zabuza,” says Kira.

“That’s right. Zabuza-sama found me when I was a child. My father had found out about my Kekkei Genkai. He killed my mother; and then tried to kill me but my control over ice saved me. I felt alone after that. I had no one until Zabuza-sama came along and gave me a purpose,” says Haku.

Naruto was shocked that any parent would do such a thing, but Kira was more focused on the end of Haku’s speech. “What do you consider your purpose to be?” she asks gently.

“I am Zabuza-sama’s tool,” replied Haku.

“A tool?” asks Naruto, shocked. “You’re more than just a tool.” He would say more, but Kira holds up her hand, silently asking him to be silent.

“I have a Kekkei Genkei as well, Haku. I can sense emotions. I think you should have a talk with Zabuza when you get the chance. He may have started off seeing you as only a tool, but I know I sensed affection from him directed at you. I believe he sees you as a close friend, though it may be difficult for him to admit it.”

The idea that Zabuza could care about him seemed to leave Haku speechless, so Kira decided now was a good time for them to leave. She didn’t really want to stick around if he was going to get all emotional. She thinks that Naruto wanted to stick around a while longer, but she didn’t want him getting too attached to a rogue ninja.

* * *

On the morning of their departure, several of the villagers gather around the bridge to see them off. They were grateful for the help that their team had provided them, and many of them were able to guess that Gatou’s death was their doing. 

Judging by their teary goodbye, Inari and Naruto had become close while she wasn’t looking. Hopefully they would get the chance to visit every once in a while. 

“Now all the bridge needs is a name,” says Tazuna. 

“Most people name things after themselves, don’t they?” asks Kira with an amused smile.

“Well, yes, but I suppose I was hoping for something more creative,” he replies with huff.

“What about the Great Uzumaki Bridge?” she suggests, causing Naruto to look at her in shock.

“You want to name the bridge after your brother?” asks Tazuna.

“Not just Naruto, or I would have suggested his first name. There used to be an entire clan of Uzumaki in the Village of Whirlpool before it was wiped out. Konoha was unable to get there in time to help them; and to this day, all the Chunin and Jounin vests have the Uzumaki spiral on them,” she says.

“You’re thinking the bridge could be a kind of memorial for them?” asks Tazuna.

“Something like that, yes. My clan, the Hakuo, are related to the Uzumaki clan, if only distantly. I don’t want the Uzumaki clan to be forgotten. A lot of people will cross over your bridge; if all those people hear the name Uzuamki, that clan will never be forgotten,” she says.

Tazuna seems to think about her words for a moment before nodding decisively. “I like it. The Great Uzumaki Bridge it is,” he says with a smile. 

The villagers approach their group a few at a time to stay their goodbyes; some of them thanking her for the fish. Once that’s all finished, they set out on their journey back home.

“That was exciting,” says Naruto. “Going back to D-rank missions after this is going to suck.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and the Hokage will give us another C-rank? I think we did alright on this mission after all,” says Sakura hopefully. 

“Or the unexpected danger from this mission will cause him to keep us in the village for a long time,” says Sasuke.

Naruto looks at Kira curiously as something occurs to him. “Hey, Kira. What do you plan on doing with Gatou’s business?” he asks.

“Hmm. Well after we’ve reported to the Hokage about this mission, I was planning on visiting the Void. I think a few of my clan members will jump at the chance to run a multi-million dollar business. I’ll have to go with them to where Gatou’s headquarters are. It’s likely that some of Gatou’s business associates are already fighting about who gets to take over the company. I bet they’ll be shocked when I show up with Gatou’s will,” she says with a laugh.

Something about her words struck Kakashi as odd. “You sound really sure that Hokage-sama will let you run off for who knows how long,” he says.

Kira blinks at him innocently. “I would only be gone for about two weeks, Kakashi-san. And I honestly can’t see the Hokage willing to anger the Hakuo clan to the point of war by costing them several million dollars,” she says with a smirk. 

“Heh. You can be kind of vicious sometimes, Kira-chan,” says Kakashi.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, Kakashi-san. All the best ninja have a streak of vicious in them,” she replies.

Naruto makes a face like he doesn’t agree, but they’ve already had this argument a million times and he isn’t the mood to have it again, so he keeps silent. Instead he starts talking about how they should celebrate the success of their first real mission with ramen when they get back home. The other two aren’t as thrilled by the idea of ramen and spend the next few minutes debating which restaurant they should go to. Kira just watches them with a fond smile, content in the knowledge that her brothers are happy and safe. 

 


	6. Chapter Five

**Kira, age 15**

It was with a sense of profound relief that Kira returned to Konoha. During the two weeks she had spent with her cousins, Nairi and Ares, she had learned just how vicious the world of businessmen was. She was glad that she wouldn’t need to run the company herself, as half the time she couldn’t even understand what they were saying! Why did lawyers need to make everything sound complicated? It had gotten to the point where she had gotten a headache every time one of them opened their mouth.

Still, it was worth a little inconvenience to now own such a profitable company. Nairi and Ares had agreed with her assessment that everything could be done legally and still make millions of dollars every year. The yearly profit minus the expenses would add a few million dollars to the Hakuo’s bank account.

Kira closes her eyes and focuses on the chakra around her. She can’t sense Serena anywhere in the village; her sister must be on a mission at the moment then. Her lips subconsciously form into a pout. She had wanted to tell her sister all about her trip, but that will have to wait now. Instead, she looks for her brothers’ chakra and finds that they are at the training grounds with their teammates. Opening her eyes, she dashes off in that direction. Perhaps Kakashi will let her join them for today. It had been a while since she got to train with Naruto and Sasuke.

When Naruto sees her, he greets her cheerfully and gives her a hug. “It feels like you’ve been gone for forever,” he exclaims.

“Ah, sorry about that. But I’m back now, no worries,” she replies.

“How did it go with the business?” asks Sasuke, walking up to her.

“It went splendidly,” she half-lies. “The company now belongs to the Hakuo clan, and I have a feeling we won’t be worrying about money for quite a while.”

“So they didn’t find it suspicious that Gatou left everything to you?” asks Sakura.

“Oh, no, they did. They just couldn’t do anything about it. The will was handwritten and signed by Gatou himself. The lawyers had no choice but to accept that Gatou’s property was now my own,” she replies smugly.

She looks at Kakashi when she senses his amusement and gives him a brief smile. The mask makes it difficult to tell, but she thinks he smiles back.

“So, Kira, what brings you all the way over here?” asks Kakashi.

“I was thinking it would be nice to train with you guys, or at least train near you. I think I need to work on increasing my strength,” she says.

Kakashi looks at her curiously. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, it wasn’t very easy carrying you to Tazuna’s house, and I know it won’t be the last time in my life that I have to carry someone to safety, perhaps a teammate or client,” she replies.

Kakashi rubs the back of his head, embarrassed. “Ah, sorry about that. Thank you, though. It would have been rather uncomfortable having to sleep on the ground. Also, I don’t mind if you want to join us for training,” he says.

“Thank you, Kakashi-san,” she says with a pleased smile.

She gets out her storage scroll and unseals a few different weights for lifting. The boys have already seen her training equipment, but Sakura has not. Curious, the younger girl walks over to her to see what she’s unsealed. “Would you like to lift weights with me, Sakura-san? I think we could both use improvement,” suggests Kira.

Sakura glances at Kakashi, who nods in approval. She looks back at Kira and says, “Okay.”

Kira has her try out a few of the weights to see which one she should start off with; and while they begin to lift weights, Naruto and Sasuke have begun their daily spar. She notices that Sakura has slowed down to watch the boys, or rather, watch Sasuke, and laughs. Sakura glances at her and blushes before resuming her weight lifting.

“I’ve been trying to focus more on training but it isn’t easy to make yourself not have a crush on someone,” says Sakura.

Kira looks at her thoughtfully. “I do understand that. Emotions are difficult to ignore, but you _will_ need to learn how to ignore your emotions to be an effective ninja. Getting distracted on a mission could get you killed. But I think you did alright on the Wave mission; I didn’t see any fangirling then.”

“About a week after becoming a genin, Sasuke and I had a long talk. He told me why he finds his fangirls so annoying. He said that none of them actually saw him as a person, just a prize to be won. And I realized that he was right. I didn’t really know who Sasuke was as a person; I had this fantasy of him in my head and that wasn’t fair to him at all,” says Sakura. “And then he asked me why I became a ninja. I had joined the Academy before I met him, so he knew my reasons didn’t have anything to do with him.”

“And why did you enroll in the Academy, Sakura-san?” asks Kira.

“I want to keep my family safe,” replies Sakura. “All I knew about ninjas as a kid was that they kept the village safe. I thought, ‘that’s what I want to do. I want to protect everyone.’ I know now that that’s not all ninjas do, but I still have the desire to keep my friends and family safe.”

Kira stared at Sakura for a moment, a smile slowly appearing on her face. “Our reasons are the same. A lot of what I do is for my clan. I want to keep them safe, and I want them to be happy. It’s why I took over Gatou’s corporation. They say money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy you the things that make you happy.”

Sakura looked over at the boys. “You consider both Sasuke and Naruto family, right? I didn’t understand that in the Academy, that Naruto isn’t just Sasuke’s friend, he’s also like his brother,” she says.

“Yes, Sasuke had a lot to say about the way you treated Naruto. He didn’t really think jealousy was a good enough excuse, either,” replied Kira.

A sheepish expression crosses Sakura’s face. “I was a bit of brat, but I’m trying to be a better person now. After spending time with them both, it’s difficult to understand how I could have been mean to Naruto. He’s just so nice and cheerful all the time.”

At that comment, some of the lingering irritation she felt towards Sakura dissipated. As long as Sakura was a genuine friend to her brother from here on out, then she would forgive the girl for the way she had treated him in the Academy. At the very least, the girl had never hit her brother. Perhaps back then, Sakura had enough common sense to know that hitting her crush’s best friend would definitely turn Sasuke away from her.

After she finished lifting weights, Kira began her kata exercises. It wasn’t as effective as actually sparring, but her preferred sparring partner, Serena, was out of the village at the moment. She would train with Naruto and Sasuke later, but it wasn’t the same kind of work out as sparring with an equal.

The training session didn’t last much longer than that. The three genin had already done their D-ranks for the day, so Kakashi sent them home. She would have gone with the boys to the clan compound, but Kakashi asked to talk to her. Puzzled, she nonetheless stayed behind to converse with the man.

“What did you want to talk about, Kakashi-san?” she asks politely.

“Well, as you already know, my sensei was an honorary member of your clan. He may not have taught me everything about your clan’s customs, but I do remember a comment he made about Hakuos not becoming Chunin before they turn fourteen,” he says.

“That’s right. It’s to prevent our children from dying in wars. Genin at twelve, Chunin at fourteen, and Jounin at sixteen,” she says.

He hesitates a moment before responding. “But it is possible for them to get promoted early if given permission by their Clan Head, correct?” he asks.

She stares at him, mind whirring through the possibilities. “You want to enter your team into the Chunin Exams already?” she asks, not sure whether she should be alarmed or not. They had just graduated a few months ago!

She could feel him get defensive. “The Chunin Exams are being held in Konoha this year. It’s the safest way to take them, you know, in your home village,” he says.

“But do you actually think they’re ready for a promotion?” she asks skeptically.

“Not entirely, no. They’re close, at least Naruto and Sasuke are. Sakura needs a little bit more work, but she’s definitely improved. But I think the experience will be good for them,” he says.

She runs her fingers through her hair, unsure how to respond. “You want my permission to enter Naruto and Sasuke into the exam?” she asks for clarification.

“Yes. I know that the Hokage could technically overrule you in this, since they aren’t officially Hakuos, but I don’t want to make an enemy of you,” he says.

She glares at him briefly for that comment before looking at the trees, trying to think. People have died during the exams, she knows that for certain, but it doesn’t happen that often, at least not in Konoha. The other villages are less concerned with the lives of their ninjas, thinking of them as tools that should gladly die for their village.

But Kakashi was right to say that it would be good experience for them. They needed the chance to fight against enemies in a controlled setting. Against her better judgement, she decides to allow it. “Very well, you can enter them into the Chunin Exams,” she says reluctantly.

Kakashi gives her a smile, eyes closing briefly. “Thank you, Kira-chan. And don’t worry so much, the boys and Sakura will be fine,” he says.

“Mmhm, sure,” she says, skeptically. Concluding that the conversation is over, she says a goodbye and leaves. She wants to find the boys and discuss strategy with them.

But after catching up with them, she sees that strategy will have to wait. There are two Sand shinobi standing in front of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Moegi, and Udon. The male Sand shinobi is holding the Hokage’s grandson, Konohamaru, in the air, possibly choking him. _‘There are already foreign shinobi in Konoha for the exam? Kakashi certainly leaves things to the last minute, waiting until now to talk to me,’_ she thinks furiously.

She marches up to the group, Naruto pausing in his yelling at the Sand shinobi to look at her. Judging by his suddenly pale face, she can just guess how pissed off she must look. The Sand shinobi also looks less confident, now that she thinks about it. “What,” she asks slowly, “are you doing to the Hokage’s grandson?”

“What?” he asks, eyes widening, whilst quickly setting the boy down. Konohamaru quickly runs over to their group, standing next to Naruto.

She gives the two Sand shinobi an unimpressed look. “Well, I can tell right now that your village’s spy network must suck, if you can’t even tell who the Hokage’s family is,” she says mockingly.

The blond girl frowns at her before scowling at the boy wearing war paint. “I told you not to mess around, Kankuro,” she says angrily. “You could have started a war with that stunt.”

“How was I supposed to know, Temari? He was just running around, the Anbu didn’t even come to his rescue!” says Kankuro.

Kira glances around, startled. Where _were_ the Anbu? Didn’t the Hokage have any sort of guard on his grandson? The kid was only an Academy student, how was he supposed to defend himself if an enemy attacked him because of his relation to the Hokage?

Kira glances to the tree on her right when she senses a new chakra signature. The two sand shinobi notice her attention has wandered and look in the same direction, paling when they see who’s there. “G-Gaara,” stutters Kankuro, obviously afraid.

“Have you forgotten why we came to Konoha?” asks Gaara, coldly.

“They started it,” mutters Kankuro.

“Shut up,” snapped Gaara.

“Sorry,” says Kankuro before falling silent.

Kira watches this silently, confused by their team dynamic. Until she focuses on Gaara’s chakra, that is. The kid was a Jinchuriki, like Naruto, and Gaara’s teammates were obviously well aware of this fact. She could feel the terror coming from them and it made her uncomfortable.

Gaara dissolves into sand and reappears on the ground next to his teammates. “We don’t have time to be fooling around. Let’s go,” says Gaara.

The three of them start to walk away but Sakura stops them. “Wait. Why are foreign shinobi here in Konoha?” she asks.

Temari turns condescending eyes on the pink haired genin. “You really don’t know? We’re here for the Chunin Exams.”

Sakura blinks in surprise. “I wonder why no one mentioned that to us?” she wonders out loud, looking at Kira, who just shrugs in reply.

Before the sand shinobi can start to leave again, Sasuke steps up. “What’s your name?” he asks.

The red haired genin stares at him coldly. “Gaara of the Desert. And you?”

“Sasuke Uchiha.”

The two of them have a brief staring contest, clearly challenging each other. Sasuke is completely caught off guard when Kira comes up to him and grabs the front of his shirt. “Are you completely insane?” she furiously whispers at him.

“What?” he asks, confused.

“I know your sensing ability has gotten better since that mission to Wave. Are you just not paying attention? That kid is a Jinchuriki,” says Kira. Sasuke’s eyes flicker to Naruto. “Exactly. But Gaara is a lot more murderous. You’re not fighting him. If you even try to, I’ll drag you to the hospital so they can have you examined for brain damage.”

“I get it. Let go already,” says Sasuke, prying her hand off his shirt. She steps back from him, then glares at the surprised Sand Shinobi. It looks like they may have heard part of what she was saying, but she doesn’t care. Gaara doesn’t say anything more to them, instead walking away with his two teammates following behind.

“Hmph. If I had known a Jinchuriki was going to be in the Exam, I wouldn’t have given Kakashi permission to enter your team,” says Kira, scowling.

“Eh?” asks Naruto. “We’re going to take the Chunin Exam?”

“If the Hokage allows it, which he likely will; and only if all of you agree to take it. You need three genin to take the exam, but I don’t want you pressuring each other to enter it. If one of you doesn’t feel ready, then you shouldn’t be forced to take the exam. The tests aren’t easy, and you’re very likely to get injured,” says Kira.

Then she turns her head to where she can sense three foreign shinobi standing on a tree branch. “And stop staring at us, damn it!” she yells at them, causing them to nearly fall out of the tree from the shock.

She growls at them, her eyes flashing light blue, the color of Ravka’s chakra, causing them to quickly leave. Her eyes gradually return to their dark blue color as she calms down. She hadn’t appreciated their interest in Sasuke; it was very suspicious.

* * *

On the day of the Chunin Exam, Kira escorts her brothers to the school, feeling incredibly agitated by all the foreign chakra in the village. It didn’t help that a lot of the Genin inside the school building felt hostile. Why had she agreed to this again? Although Naruto’s excitement almost made her think it was worth it.

She said goodbye to them at the door and then went to find a tree to sit in. She wasn’t leaving until they were done with the test. She knew the first one was just a written test, and she shouldn’t have anything to worry about, but she didn’t trust those foreigners not to attack her family. Those sound genin had shown too much interest in Sasuke.

Her hand clenches into a fist as she once again sensed _that_ chakra. She didn’t know whose chakra she was sensing, but it was strong. And if animal labels could be applied to chakra, she would say that it was snake-like. It was making her uneasy. To distract herself, she got out a book and began to read.

Five minutes later, she was fully absorbed into the book, Chunin Exams forgotten. She had gotten this book from the Void Village’s library, and it described different ways to increase your strength using chakra, techniques similar to what Tsunade of the Sanin was known for.

_‘I think I’ve discovered what kind of fighter I want to be,’_ thinks Kira, amazed by what she was reading. Water ninjutsu, seals, and super strength. That’s what she wanted. And healing too, she supposed, if she could manage it. She had been studying healing scrolls for the past two years, and had just managed to move onto the intermediate scrolls. Healing was challenging, but it would be worth it if she could save her comrades.

She glanced up, briefly, when she sensed quite a bit of confusion from the genin in the building. Guess the written test must be difficult this year.

* * *

When the three genin entered the school building, Sakura noticed the genjutsu on the second floor; so the three of them walked around the quarreling genins and ascended to the third floor. Before they could reach the room where the test was taking place, they were stopped by a genin in green spandex.

After proclaiming his devotion to Sakura and getting politely rejected, Lee challenged Sasuke to a spar. “Why?” asks Sasuke.

Lee stared at him confusion for a moment, clearly not expecting that answer. “I want to see which is stronger, those who are called geniuses or those who are hard workers,” said Lee.

“And you think because everyone says I have natural talent means that I don’t _also_ work hard?” asks Sasuke. “I train everyday with my team and my family. And even if I wanted to spar with you, I’m literally about to take the Chunin Exams. Do I look like I have time for this?”

“You don’t have to be rude about it,” says Lee.

“Not trying to be; I just think you have bad timing. You know, I’ve heard one of the tests in the Chunin Exam involves fighting against each other. We might get a chance to fight then,” says Sasuke.

Lee grins, “I’m looking forward to it!”

Lee’s teammates finally catch up to him, so the six of them enter the room together. Lee’s team separated from them, and Naruto’s team went over to where the rest of their graduation class was hanging out. To Sasuke’s annoyance, Ino comes over to them and clings to him whilst starting a verbal fight with Sakura.

Sasuke watches as Naruto chatters happily with previous classmates. He wasn’t as close to the others as Naruto was, preferring to spend his time with the blond or Kira and Serena.

“You guys should quiet down. You’re drawing a lot of negative attention from the other genin.”

“Who are you?” Naruto asks the silver haired genin that’s just come up to their group.

“I’m Kabuto Yakushi. It’s nice to meet you.”

The longer Kabuto talks and shows off his chakra cards, the more hostile Sasuke feels. He doesn’t know what about the other genin is making him angry, but he can’t help but feel that the silver haired genin is an enemy. His instincts are screaming that this guy can’t be trusted. If he were more outgoing like Kira, then he’d probably imitate the growl she made at those sound ninja that were spying on them earlier. Instead he just scowls at the other man, waiting for him to go away. He knows that Naruto has picked up on his mood, and is also eyeing Kabuto with suspicion.

He wishes he had enough control of his sensing abilities to figure out what’s causing him to distrust Kabuto so much; but he has yet to learn how to pick out individual emotions from someone. So far, people’s emotions just blend together, giving him a general impression of whether they mean him harm or not.

Surprisingly, the other genin seems to pick up on his mood. First, Sakura notices the suspicious looks Naruto and him are giving Kabuto, then Ino followed by her teammates. He thinks Hinata notices Naruto’s attitude towards Kabuto, giving the silver haired genin a frown. Shino and Kiba notice their normally shy teammate frowning at Kabuto and give the other man hostile looks.

When all nine genin are giving the man unfriendly stares, Kabuto stammers out a good-bye and wanders off. No doubt, the man is confused by their behavior, but Sasuke is just relieved that he’s gone. “What was that about?” asks Kiba in a whisper.

Sasuke looks at him. “Are you aware that the Hakuo clan has a Kekkei Genkai that allows them to sense emotions?” At the other genin’s nod, he continues, “I have Hakuo blood in me. I’m still learning how to sense individual emotions, but I got a general impression that Kabuto couldn’t be trusted.”

“It is troubling that we can’t trust a fellow Konoha nin,” says Shino.

“Kabuto is a competitor for the Chunin exams. Could the distrust have come from that?” asks Shikamaru.

Sasuke thinks about it for a moment before shaking his head. “It felt stronger than that; like he was an enemy not just competition for a test.”

Sasuke glances at the door as Kiro Yamada and Hiroki Saito from Kira’s team and Natsuo Nakano from Serena’s team entered the room. Naruto noticed them as well and waves them over. Seeing Sakura’s curious expression, he explained, “Those three are from our cousins’ genin teams. They didn’t make Chunin when Kira and Serena did, so now they’re taking the test together.”

Surprisingly, the next team to enter was Kenta’s. He would have expected his cousin to inform him if he was going to be taking the Chunin exams with them. Perhaps he had wanted it to be a surprise? On Kenta’s team was Sofia Koizumi and Hiraku Inuzuka with his dog, Luna.

“Hiraku didn’t tell me he was taking the exam too,” said Kiba. After seeing his teammate’s curious looks, he says, “Hiraku is my cousin, the son of my mother’s brother. He’s two years older than I am.”

Akamaru and Luna sniff each other in greeting while Kiba and Hiraku chat before the test starts. A few minutes later, a man appears in the front of the room, and tells everyone to quiet down. Everyone is given a piece of paper with a number on it, which tells them where they’re supposed to sit. He ends up seated away from Naruto and Sakura, which means they won’t be able to help each other during this test.

Sasuke stares at the questions on the test for a while, wondering how anyone can expect a genin to know the answers to these questions. And, then, he realizes that maybe they’re not. Kira had mentioned that one version of this exam was meant to test your spying skills. But knowing the purpose of the test doesn’t actually help him accomplish it. If he had the Sharingan, maybe he could copy someone else’s answers, but he doesn’t so he can’t.

Well, he may not be able to answer every question, but one of them is about math, which he’s fairly good at. There are some types of seals that require math, so Aunt Yumiko had taught both Naruto and him quite a bit of the subject. Hopefully answering just one of the questions would be enough to let them pass.

Sasuke is initially worried when Ibiki says that failing the tenth question will force you to stay a genin, but one look at Kenta’s unconcerned face has him calming down. When Kenta notices his look, his cousin smiles at him briefly before looking back at the instructor. Well, then, if Kenta is so calm, it might mean that Ibiki is lying about having the authority to permanently make them genin. Naruto, too, has noticed their cousin’s laid-back attitude and gives the instructor an unimpressed look. He can see that Sakura is confused by their calm demeanor, but it causes her to keep her hand down, which is good.

About a third of the people in the room have left, some of which Sasuke knew were actually Chunins pretending to be genin. When it became clear that no one else was leaving, Ibiki announced that they all passed, which was sort of anticlimactic, in Sasuke’s opinion. Apparently all they needed to do to pass the first test was sit in their chair. He guessed that whoever designed this test cared more about bravery than intelligence or spying ability.

His eyes flicker to the window an instant before a woman in a tan trench coat burst through it. She introduced herself as the proctor for the second exam and commanded them to meet her at Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death.

“Alright, brats, listen up,” says Anko once everyone is assembled before her. “Each team will be given either a Heaven or Earth scroll. If you get a Heaven scroll, then you have to steal an Earth scroll from one of the other teams and vice versa. You have five days to do so, and you can’t leave the forest during the test. After you’ve gotten both scrolls, head to the tower in the middle of the forest. And _don’t_ open the scrolls before then. You don’t want to know what will happen to you if you do.”

Anko points to the tent off to the side. “After everyone has signed a waiver, saying that we’re not responsible if you die, then your team will be given one of the scrolls.”

The woman calls the teams up, one by one, to go into the tent. After everyone has gotten their scrolls, they spread out, each team going to a different gate. Kenta’s team pauses by their gate.

“I’ve discussed it with my team, and we were thinking we could help each other out during this test, seeing as how the proctor didn’t say there were any rules against it,” says Kenta.

Sasuke glances at Kenta’s teammates, surprised, but none of them look upset by the idea. After glancing as his own teammates to make sure none of them have objections to the plan, he says, “Alright. We’ll meet up in the forest then?”

“Yep. My team will find yours. We can discuss our plan and what scrolls we need to find then,” replies Kenta. “Later.” With a wave, Kenta leads his team to their own gate.

Right before everyone enters the forest, Anko cheerfully calls out, “Try not to die!”

_‘That woman is crazy,_ ’ thinks Sasuke.

Kenta and his team find them a few hours after they enter the forest. “Alright, first things first, we need to know which scrolls we’re going after. My team has an Earth scroll. Yours?” asks Kenta.

“We’ve got a Heaven scroll,” replies Naruto. “So we need one of each.”

“Now we just need to figure out which team to go after,” says Sasuke.

“We should leave Hinata and Ino’s team alone. There’s no reason for Leaf shinobi to fight against each other if we don’t have to,” says Sakura.

“And I don’t particularly want to fight against my cousin,” says Hiraku. “I live right next to him; and I’m sure his whining would be annoying if I took away his chances of becoming Chunin.”

“Should we leave Serena and Kira’s teammates alone as well?” asks Naruto.

“That would probably be a good idea. Even if you ignore the fact that Kira and Serena are now friends with their teammates, I think they might be stronger than us. Naruto and I have seen their two teams training with each other,” replies Sasuke.

“What about that Sound team that was spying on us earlier this week?” asks Sakura.

“You were being spied on?” demands Kenta. “No one told me about this.”

“Just like you didn’t tell us you were taking the Exams this year?” asks Sasuke, drly.

“….Touché,” says Kenta. “Still, if this team has an unhealthy interest in you, we should take them out before they strike at us.”

“And after that?” asks Sofia. “Are there any other teams we should avoid?”

“The sand shinobi, the red-haired one, Gaara, is a Jinchuriki. And a bloodthirsty one at that,” replies Sasuke.

Kenta points off into the distance, “The sound shinobi are that way. If we head out now, we should catch up with them in a couple hours.”

Sasuke doesn’t need sensing abilities to tell that the sound nin are surprised to see them; and the look of shock on their faces is actually kind of funny. However, the fight itself does not go as smoothly as he would have liked. The sound team have some sort of ability to control sound waves, disorienting them all. Hiraku and Luna, with their enhanced hearing, are the ones most affected by this ability. He finds himself feeling concerned when he sees the blood coming out of Hiraku’s ears.

However, now that they know what the sound team’s abilities are, it is easier for them to counter the sound nin’s attacks. Sakura stays by the injured Hiraku to keep the sound nin from getting to him. Kenta goes after the man with the bandages covering his face, Naruto and he attack the other man, and Sofia takes down the female.

“They were definitely Chunin level,” says Kenta, frowning at the unconscious sound nin. “Still not sure why they were spying on you, though.”

“It might just be because he’s an Uchiha. You know a lot of villages are interested in stealing Kekkei Genkai,” replies Sofia. “They might have been trying to see if he has the Sharingan.”

Sasuke frowns, unhappy. “Well, they’re out of luck. I haven’t figured out how to activate it yet.”

“Ugh, my ears,” mutters Hiraku, getting up from the ground. He glances down at Luna, concerned. “You alright?” Luna barks in reply, causing his worried expression to turn to relief.

The Inuzuka rubs at his ears, grimacing at the sight of blood on his fingers. He can still hear, but it’s a bit muffled. He looks up to see Kenta and Sofia’s worried faces. “I’ll be fine, guys. Don’t worry so much,” says Hiraku.

“Still, we should try to get the second scroll as soon as possible and head for the tower. I want a healer to look at your ears,” says Kenta. He holds up the scroll they acquired from the sound team. “We’ve got an Earth scroll for Team 7, now we need a Heaven scroll for ourselves.” He tosses the scroll to Naruto, who seals it away into a storage scroll.

After that, Kenta tracks down a team from Amegakure. Luckily, this team has a Heaven scroll, which they acquire after knocking the Amegakure team out. “Now we can head to the tower, right?” asks Sofia to Kenta, but he can’t concentrate on her words when such a large chakra signature is coming their way.

“Someone’s coming,” says Kenta, eyes wide. “He feels like a Kage. Who on earth is he?”

“What?” asks Sakura. “How could someone that strong sneak into the Chunin exams?”

Before her question can be answered, not that anyone has an answer anyway, a strong guest of wind blows through the area, pushing them off their feet. It seems like the wind tries to blow Kenta’s team away from Sasuke’s, but everyone grabs onto a tree and sticks there with chakra. There’s no way Kenta is allowing his cousins and their teammate to fight such a strong opponent without back up!

Once the wind dies down, the six of them look up to see a man standing above them, on one of the tree branches. Kenta frowns at the stranger, wondering why his appearance looks so feminine when he knows the other is a guy by the feel of his chakra. He glances at the enemy’s headband and sees the symbol of Grass.

“Hmm. It seems like you already have the scrolls you need,” says the stranger, “But we can still have fun.” The genin’s eyes widen in fear as two very _large_ snakes slither out of the forest and head straight towards them.

“Hiraku, you’re faster than Sakura; make sure she doesn’t get eaten,” orders Kenta.

Sakura frowns at that, hating the idea of needing to be protected; but she knows her speed and strength still need work. She’s honestly not sure why Kakashi-sensei thought she was ready to take the Chunin exam yet.

Naruto creates several dozen shadow clones, who then leap at the snakes. A few of them get eaten, then poof out of existence. Seeing this, Sasuke gets the idea to hand an explosive tag to one of the clones. Naruto’s clone gets the idea, and jumps at the snake, allowing it to eat him and setting off the tag. The force of the explosion kills the snake, sending snake organs flying every which way.

“Gross,” laughs Naruto, “but effective.”

The other snake is defeated when Kenta throws several dozen kunai into its open mouth, making it bleed to death from the inside. Kenta glares at the stranger when he starts to laugh. Before he can say anything, though, the Grass nin rushes at him. Kenta tries to bring an arm up to block, but the enemy is too fast. The force of the blow to his stomach expels all the air from his lungs. Gasping, he tries to jump back, but the enemy grabs him, then flings into a tree.

“Kenta!” calls out Sofia, horrified. She stares at her teammate for a moment, hoping he’ll get up, but the force of the tree hitting his head has knocked him unconscious. Furious, she sends several shuriken at the Grass nin, who dodges them all effortlessly. She strikes out at the enemy with taijutsu, but less than a minute later, she is also being flung at a nearby tree. She feels a sharp pain in her chest, accompanied by a crack noise that lets her know her ribs have broken.

She looks up from the ground when she hears a growl and sees the blond genin charging at the Grass nin, followed soon after by Sasuke. She catches a glimpse of Naruto’s eyes and are surprised to see that they are red. It doesn’t look like the Sharingan, and the pain is distracting her. If she survives this fight, she’ll try to figure out what’s going on with the blonde genin. Her vision darkens, her head throbbing from being hit against a tree, and she loses consciousness.

* * *

Kira paces outside the fence of Training Ground 44, agitation rising every minute. She could _feel_ that her brothers were fighting against someone way stronger than a Chunin and that her cousin had already been knocked unconscious. To her left, Anko was eating dango and watching her pace, amused.

“You look ridiculous,” says Anko.

Kira scowls at her. “What’s ridiculous is that there’s a Kage level shinobi taking the Chunin Exam!” she half-shouts.

Anko’s eyes widen, muscles going tense. “What?” she asks, incredulously.

“You can’t sense it?” asks Kira, confused. “It’s a really weird, powerful chakra. Kind of snake-like too.”

Before Anko can response, a Jounin appears next to them. “Anko-san. We’ve found the bodies of one of the teams supposed to be taking the Chunin Exam. There’s something weird about the bodies. Please come with me.”

With a sinking feeling, Anko follows him to the corpses of a Grass team. Absently, she notices Kira following her and wonders if she should tell the red-haired genin to go back. She’s not sure how gruesome the bodies will be, or how much bloodshed the girl has seen. She glances at the girl and gets a stubborn look in response. Alright then; if the girl thinks she can handle it, then Anko isn’t going to waste time arguing with her.

_‘Their faces look like they were melted off,’_ thinks Anko with a hand on the curse seal on her neck. She thinks back to the Grass nin she had met earlier that day and how the genin’s tongue could extend, unnaturally long. _‘Why is he back in the village?’_

“Tell the Hokage about this and send two team of Anbu into the forest,” orders Anko. The three take off to follow her orders, and Anko rushes into the forest. She notices the girl following her and sighs. The girls speaks up before she can.

“There’s an intruder in the forest, right? It isn’t cheating if I protect my family from someone who isn’t legally allowed in here,” says Kira.

Anko, pauses, thinking about the rules of the exam. “Yeah, I suppose that would work as a loop-hole, but that wasn’t my main objection. The man who killed those genin is way too strong for you to handle.”

Kira scoffs in reply. “He’s stronger than you, as well, but that isn’t stopping you. Whoever the man is, I’m not just going to sit by while he attacks my family!”

“Tch. Stubborn kid.”

When they reach the intruder, who Kira is pretty sure by now is Orochimaru of the Sanin, the sight she sees has her teeth grinding together. Everyone, except Sasuke, has been knocked out; and Kira senses something interfering with the Kyuubi’s seal. Orochimaru has Sasuke pinned down and is biting into her brother’s neck, channeling his foul chakra into her brother.

For a moment, all she can hear is the ringing in her ears as molten hot rage pours through ever vein in her body. Before she has time to ask, Ravka is already giving her chakra. The soothing feeling of Ravka’s cool, calm chakra filling every cell in her body reduces her anger to something manageable.

Anko watches, stunned, as the girl begins to glow blue. The girl’s chakra has suddenly started to feel demonic, but also nothing like the Kyuubi’s. _‘I guess those rumors about the Void were true, after all,’_ thinks Anko.

The tree branch under Kira’s feet cracks as she rushes at Orochimaru, Ravka’s chakra giving her increased speed and strength. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Sasuke looking at her, his eyes the color of blood. Her lips press together tightly. Now that her brother has activated the Sharingan, she knows that Orochimaru will try to take him from her.

Her fist lashes out, attempting to break the stupid snake sannin’s nose, but her fist is regrettably blocked. She pushes against the hand holding her wrist, Orochimaru’s eyes widening as she begins to push him back. He digs his feet into the feet, refusing to be moved by a genin. When Anko’s snakes wrap around him, he dissolves into a mud clone. From off to the side, he chuckles at the sound of Kira’s annoyed hiss.

A gentle wind blows through the area, bringing with it a strange pink dust that only comes near him. Suspicious, he tries to avoid it, but the wind brings it straight to his mouth, forcing him to inhale it. The world around him blurs in and out of focus; the colors of everything around him seem to blend together until all he can see are blobs of browns and greens. _‘Is this poison or a genjutsu?’_ he wonders.

Spiking his chakra doesn’t dispel the illusion, but he doesn’t feel sick or tired as he would from a poison. _‘What did that pink dust do to me?’_

Seeing that her jutsu has worked, Serena jumps down from the trees and heads straight towards the injured genin. Kira and Anko can deal with Orochimaru now that he’s disoriented, which leaves her free to focus on healing the genin. Using the chakra boost from Serata, she creates six shadow clones, sending one to each genin.

On Naruto, she discovers that Orochimaru has placed a seal to block the Kyuubi’s chakra. It only takes her a moment to remove it. He only has minor injuries, scratches and bruises, which she quickly heals. Sofia and Kenta both have concussions, which take longer to heal, but are still within her abilities. She’s puzzled by the damage to Hiraku’s ears; she has just enough to medical knowledge to begin repairing his ear drums. When he wakes up, she’ll recommend he visit a more experienced healer just in case.

Sakura has a broken arm and a concussion, as well as bruises and a sprained ankle. And although Sasuke is awake, she thinks he received the most damage. He may not be as beat up as them, but she would consider the foul, corruptive chakra spreading throughout his veins to be infinitely worse than a broken bone. After healing what injures he does have, Serena examines the seal on his neck. Right away, she can tell that it’s going to take a while to remove such a complicated seal, but that’s not going to deter her. She’s sure that her and Kira can figure it out eventually.

Speaking of her sister, Serena glances over to see how the fight with Orochimaru is doing. It’s quite interesting, actually. Orochimaru may not be able to see very well, right now, but he can still sense Kira and Anko’s chakra. They have managed to get a few hits in, though; nothing major, just a few cuts and bruises. Though judging by Orochimaru’s emotions, he’s not fully paying attention to the fight; most likely, he’s trying to figure out how to dispel her genjutsu.

Too bad for him, he’s going to have to wait until all the dust in his system is gone before her illusion will disappear. She can sense his irritation and frustration increasing, and is thus unsurprised when he creates several clones to distract Kira and Anko while he escapes.

By the time the clones are dispatched, Orochimaru has already fled Training Ground 44. Serena ignores her sister’s cursing to concentrate on the seal on Sasuke’s neck. Sometime during the fight with Orochimaru, the seal knocked Sasuke unconscious, which she finds to be somewhat alarming. What exactly is this seal doing to her brother?

Her clones dispel as the genins begin to wake up. “They’ll need to get to the tower themselves, if they don’t want to be disqualified,” says Anko to her and Kira. “I only allowed this much because it’s the proctor’s fault for not realizing we had an intruder.”

“We’ll get to the tower, no problem,” says Naruto, coming up to them. His eyes dart to Sasuke, looking concerned. “But what did that guy do to Sasuke?”

“It’s a curse seal,” says Anko. “When you get to the tower, we’ll deal with it then.”

“I don’t suppose by ‘deal with it’ you mean remove it?” asks Kira.

Anko sighs. “Unfortunately not. If we knew how to remove Orochimaru’s seals, I would have had mine taken off years ago. But there’s a seal we can place over it, to suppress it. The seal will depend on Sasuke’s will, however. If he wants to use the corrupted power, then the seal can’t do anything about it.”

Kira places her hand against Sasuke’s seal and looks into his eyes. “I hope you’re aware of how dangerous it could be to use this thing. Orochimaru wouldn’t give you power for free; and we have no idea how much this seal could influence your mind if you let it.”

Sasuke nods his head, looking determined. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Good,” says Kira with a relieved smile.

Kira, Serena, and Anko leave the forest after making sure that the genins are all awake and uninjured enough to travel. “And don’t mention to anyone else that you helped them out. I’ll give a full report to the Hokage, but I don’t want anyone else calling favoritism,” says Anko.

They separate outside the Forest of Death; Anko heads to the Hokage Tower to give her report while Kira and Serena head to the Hakuo clan compound. They need to get in contact with their relatives from the Void; everyone needs to know that Orochimaru has declared war against their clan by attacking their brothers, Sasuke and Naruto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s some information about Kira and Serena:
> 
> Kira and Serena’s grandmother, on their father’s side, was a Yokai, making the twins a quarter Yokai. The Yokai instincts show up more strongly in Kira than Serena, which is where she gets her bloodthirsty nature from. Although Kira doesn’t know it, being a quarter Yokai will save her life someday.
> 
> Serena is better at genjutsu and medical ninjutsu than her sister, though Kira won’t let that stop her from learning how to heal people; it’s just going to take her longer. Serena is more charismatic and charming than her sister. Serena has taught her sister how to apologize to people while making it seem like her actions were only logical. This has allowed Kira to get away with things that she normally wouldn’t, like hitting her teammate for his sexist remarks.
> 
> Kira and Serena are both good at seals, but Kira has slightly more natural talent. It is easier for Kira to come up with complex seal designs on the fly, while Serena needs time to plan it out. Both of them are just as fast at deciphering the purpose of a seal that they’ve just seen. 
> 
> Serena’s favorite colors are green, pink, and purple; and her favorite season is spring. Unlike her sister, Serena isn’t actually that fond of the idea of having children. She’s willing to have one to satisfy the deal with Serata, but Serena doesn’t intend to be a house-wife. 
> 
> Kira loves the colors red and blue. If winter wasn’t so cold, it would be her favorite season because she likes the look of snow. Instead, autumn is her favorite; it’s not too cold, and she likes seeing the leaves turn red. Unlike Serena, Kira likes the idea of having children. She likes the idea of creating a new person who is half her and half of whoever she falls in love with (genetically that is, she doesn’t expect her children to be exactly like her).


End file.
